This thesis analyzes a scenario where the distribution system operator needs to estimate whether the average power demand in a given period is above a predetermined threshold using a 1-bit memoryless scheme. Specifically, individual smart-meters periodically monitor the average power demand of their respective households to inform the system operator if it is above a predetermined level using only a 1-bit signal. The communication link between the meters and the operator occurs in two hops and is modeled as binary symmetric channels. The first hop connects individual smart meters to their corresponding aggregator, while the second connects different aggregators to the system operator. In the first set of analysis, the decision making only happens by the network operator in the second hop and aggregators in the first hop only work as relay nodes which only forward the information it has received from the smart meters. AND and OR decision rules are studied in this scenario. Moreover, in the second set of analysis, the decision about the power demand happens in two stages based on the received information bit. Meaning that the decision making happens both by the aggregators in the first hop and network operator in the second hop. We consider here three decision rules in the second scenario: AND, OR and MAJORITY. Our analytical results indicate the circumstances (i.e. how frequent the meters experience the consumption above the defined threshold) and the design setting (i.e. decision rules) that a low error probability can be attained. We illustrate our approach with both theoretical and numerical results from actual daily consumptions from 12 households and 3 aggregators. Also, we derive closed-form equations for the average decision error probability as a function of the system parameters (e.g. number of sensors, communication error, sensing error) and the input signal characterization. The first set of simulations are done in Matlab. Since the second set of data are provided in Excel; thus, the simulations are done using Visual Basic.

This thesis is about testing a system’s actual performance under the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB specifications, with a compliant device DW1000. It is of great interest to test the synchronization ability of different preamble lengths, which are applied in the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB standard. It is also urgent to know the system’s actual performance in a multipath propagation environment, since the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB standard allows an energy detection (ED) receiver to take advantage of multipath propagation. Theory predicts that a long preamble length can offer better synchronization ability at long distances, and has a longer working range. On the other hand, a long preamble length requires a longer channel occupancy time and more power consumption. Thus, a long preamble may not be the optimal choice for working at short distances. The channel model of the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB standard, which is based upon the Saleh-Valenzuela (S-V) model, can be regarded as block fading. Although multipath propagation can improve the system’s performance by increasing the SNR, the effects of block fading on the system must be taken into account as well. It is pointed out in various papers that the S-V model is precise in predicting a none-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment, while it is not precise in predicting a line-of-sight (LOS) environment. The results of the first part of the measurements show that longer preambles have longer working ranges. However, the longer preambles’ performance, in the term of the packet reception ratio, is not necessarily better than that of the shorter preambles. The results of the second part of the measurements show that the system can take advantage of multipath propagation. On the other hand, the system’s performance might become instable, due to block fading. The receiver and the transmitter will have difficulty in synchronization, if the channel impulse response changes too much within the unsynchronized time period. A longer preamble length tends to offer a longer stable working range. In addition, the path loss of the channel will suddenly increase and then decrease. This phenomenon of a sudden change in the path loss at a certain distance is quite similar to that of a narrowband system.

In this thesis, a steerable antenna system which is able to maintain high connectivity through beamforming towards the strongest base station signal is presented. Main objective of the thesis is to design an antenna system for vehicles operating in poor coverage region or even in no coverage region, in order to enable these vehicles to make a reliable communication link with far away base stations. To achieve this high performance antenna system, several antenna designs were considered and evaluated for their performance. This thesis provides an overview of different antenna designs considered and their pros and cons. Among these designs, the concept of stacked patch antenna was selected for prototype manufacturing because of its good performance in terms of bandwidth, efficiency, gain, impedance matching and ease of fabrication because of its simple structure. Stacked patch antenna was optimized for lower GSM band covering frequencies from 824 MHz to 960 MHz by using electromagnetic simulation software CST Microwave Studio. Finally the stacked patch antenna was fabricated and measurements were performed. The results for both the prototype measurement and simulations are presented and compared. From the comparison, it is concluded that the manufactured antenna element prototype gives high performance as promised by simulation results and is suitable for the adaptive vehicular antenna system.

The usage of massive antenna arrays coupled with millimeter-wave (mmW) transmissions has emerged as enabling technology of the fifth generation mobile communication standard, the 5G. This solution has great potentials to provide Gb/s data-rate and high cell capacity by leveraging the synergy amongst high resolution spatial filtering, adaptive beamforming and channel sparsity. One of the main challenges, however, is related to the implementation and digital processing as with a conventional transceiver architecture, an increase of the number of antennas implies more analog-to-digital (or digital-to-analog) converters, more power amplifiers and baseband units. Subsequently, the energy, factor-size and computational power requirements become impractical. To counter these effects a hybrid transceiver design has been proposed, in which multiple analog front-ends are combined into a single (or multiple) baseband processing unit allowing the transceiver to reduce the complexity of the digital signal processing as well as the power consumption. In this Thesis we investigate different architecture models and evaluate the trade-off between energy consumption and performance in channel estimation. More specifically, we study a hybrid receiver model with 64 antenna elements, parallel digital paths and, for the channel estimation, we consider the adaptive-least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (A-LASSO) algorithm that leverages channel sparsity into the estimation. Simulation results have shown that a transceiver architecture with only four base-bands performed best over the different cell sizes. Compared to the fully digital receiver this results in tenfold power consumption reduction according to analysis.

Efficient use of wireless spectrum is needed, due to enormous increase in wireless devices during last few years. In this context lot of effort is being done to make an intelligent and cognitive radio system, which can use the spectrum opportunistically. The ratio of the signal average power to the interference plus noise average power is called signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). SINR is one of the important parameters that can help in developing cognitive radio systems, because on the basis of its calculation the spectrum can be utilized efficiently. The principle goal of this thesis is to implement a SINR estimation algorithm for a cognitive radio network (CRN) test-bed. The proposed SINR estimation algorithm is second order moment and fourth order moment (M2M4) SINR estimation algorithm, where M2 and M4 are the second order moment and fourth order moments respectively. The M2M4 estimation algorithm is one of the non-data-aided (NDA) estimation algorithms. Hence, the algorithm takes the received signal as input and calculates the second and fourth moments blindly. The average signal power and average interference plus noise power can be calculated from these second and fourth order moments, their ratio yields the SINR. The M2M4 estimation algorithm is first simulated in MATLAB, and then it is designed for system generator model to draw fair comparison between simulations and system generator model. The experimental evaluation revealed that despite of the word length constraint in the system generator model, it performs reasonably well when compared to the ideal (MATLAB) solution. The M2M4 estimation algorithm is tested and verified by different test cases, to ensure its validity. The algorithm is tested for different signal strengths. The result shows M2M4 is an efficient algorithm for the SINR estimation. However, the proposed architecture could not fit into the aimed hardware because of heavy design since it consume more resources than available.

Multi agent system (MAS) is considered an effective way to design, analyze and implement complex systems in various disciplines nowadays. However, MAS has not been sufficiently applied in mainstream modelling of wireless communication networks yet. The exponential growth of network users has led today’s communication networks even more significantly complex. As such, modelling and simulation tends to grow in proportion but not markedly to meet the preciseness and complexity of the system under consideration. Furthermore, the future mobile communication seems to incline over self-adaptive resource allocation and congestion control mechanisms. This aims to relieve the workload of the network operator while maintaining the QoS level of the communication intact. The advancements also envision the autonomous nature of future wireless communication technologies where dynamic resource allocation will play a vital role in efficient bandwidth utilization, throughput maximization and effective power control mechanisms. In this context, MAS brings about various possibilities to model and simulate environments which are typically stochastic in nature and tends to grow in a decentralized manner. MAS based simulation is such a simulation method which has gained recognition in modeling telecommunication systems where issues like network complexity, traffic and network management are prevalent. MAS has its proven standing to represent a real interactive environment of a system where learning, negotiation and cooperation are important phenomena. On that account, MAS has already started to establish its turf in the wireless communication systems as well. As a matter of fact, the existing network simulators are not designed to incorporate the features that MAS has to offer. So, the agent based simulation toolkits are used alongside, on top of which most of the physical environment aspects can be modeled that are usually neglected by the existing network simulators. This thesis investigates the areas of wireless communications where multi agent systems and simulators are applicable by the means of literature study and presents simple simulation models constructed in Netlogo, a multi agent based simulation toolkit. As a result, the applicability of MAS simulators in areas like radio channel environment, resource allocation, routing, medium access control and cognitive radio is presented. At the end, conclusions are drawn about feasibility of using MAS simulators to simulate wireless communication networks.

This master's thesis project focuses on the life and music of Liza Minnelli, the research of which culminated in the development of a one-woman performance piece and monograph. Using song, dance, and dramatic dialogue, this presentation reveals the many aspects of Liza's heart and soul, her relationship with her famous mother, and her own personal struggles. Through the eyes of Liza, this piece will explore the duality of her life--the underlining turmoil that fluctuated between her personal life and professional career. My methodology includes studying biographies, articles, and interviews written about Liza Minnelli, as well as watching films and performances of her work. The performance piece is a compilation of my research. I will also explore the relationship and influence that Liza's famous mother had on her, and see if other adversaries in her personal life affected her choices as a singer, actress, and entertainer. People have often told me I look like Liza Minnelli. Walking down Lexington and 47th Street was one of the many times; I was approached by excited Liza Minnelli fans wanting an autograph and snapshot of me. The reaction I received in letting them know I was in the same business was just a precursor to daydreaming of one day portraying Liza on stage. I always loved Judy Garland's and Liza's musicals and movies. They inspired me at a young age. Never once did I try to emulate Liza's style or copy her personality, because like her, I am determined to be my own "me." Ultimately, I would like this to be the beginning of something that I can continue to develop and workshop with the intent to produce for other professional theaters.

Германаты R2Ge2O7 (R=Tb-Lu, Y) имеют широкую область применения благодаря многообразию свойств, в том числе, благодаря оптическим свойствам. Кристаллическая структура этих соединений изучена достаточно хорошо, в то время как экспериментальных данных по фононным спектрам и упругим постоянным нет. В научной печати имеются только данные об ИК и КР спектрах поликристаллического образца Y2Ge2O7, из которых были определены частоты менее половины фононных мод. В связи с этим представляется актуальным провести первопринципное исследование структуры и динамики ряда R2Ge2O7 (R=Tb-Lu, Y). В работе в рамках единого ab initio подхода были проведены расчеты кристаллической структуры, частот и интенсивностей ИК и КР спектров, а также упругих постоянных R2Ge2O7. Из анализа векторов смещений, полученных из первопринципного расчета, определена степень участия ионов в каждой моде. Расчет фононных спектров и упругих постоянных для редкоземельных германатов R2Ge2O7 выполнен впервые. Расчеты проводились в рамках теории функционала плотности с гибридным функционалом PBE0, который учитывает локальный и нелокальный (в формализме Хартри-Фока) обмен, а также межэлектронные корреляции. Такой подход надежно опробован для сложных соединений с ионной и ионно-ковалентной связью. Расчеты были проведены в программе CRYSTAL17, предназначенной для моделирования периодических структур в рамках МО ЛКАО подхода. Результаты расчетов R2Ge2O7 хорошо согласуются с экспериментальными данными по кристаллической структуре, а также с имеющимися данными по ИК и КР спектрам для Y2Ge2O7. Расчеты позволили определить типы мод в измеренных спектрах иттриевого германата, а также описать изменение частот фононных мод и упругих свойств соединений R2Ge2O7 в ряду R=Tb-Lu. / Germanates R2Ge2O7 (R = Tb-Lu, Y) have a wide area of applications due to the variety of properties, including optical properties. The crystal structure of these compounds has been studied quite well, but there are no experimental data of phonon spectra and elastic constants. In the articles only the IR and Raman spectra of the polycrystalline Y2Ge2O7 are available, from which the frequencies of less than half of the phonon modes were determined. In this regard, it seems actual to conduct ab-initio study of the structure and dynamics of the row R2Ge2O7 (R = Tb-Lu, Y). In the framework of a single ab initio approach were calculated the crystal structure, frequencies and intensities of the IR and Raman spectra and elastic constants of R2Ge2O7. From the analysis of displacement vectors obtained from an ab-initio calculation, the degree of participation of ions in each mode is determined. The calculation of phonon spectra and elastic constants for rare-earth germanates R2Ge2O7 was performed for the first time. The calculations were carried out in the framework of the density functional theory with the PBE0 hybrid functional, which takes into account local and nonlocal (in the Hartree-Fock formalism) exchange, as well as interelectronic correlations. This approach has been reliably tested for complex compounds with ion and ion-covalent bonds. The calculations were carried out in the CRYSTAL17 program, designed to simulate periodic structures within the framework of the MO LCAO approach. The results of calculations of R2Ge2O7 are in good agreement with the experimental data of the crystal structure and with the available data of IR and Raman spectra for Y2Ge2O7. The calculations made it possible to determine the types of modes in the measured spectra of yttrium germanate and to describe the change in the frequencies of the phonon modes and the elastic properties of R2Ge2O7 compounds in the row R = Tb-Lu.

Выпускная квалификационная работа состоит из введения, трех частей, заключения, библиографического списка, приложений. В теоретической части представлены основные понятия, цели вовлеченности, ее виды и формы, этапы проведения, критерии и методы. В практической части описывается общая характеристика исследуемого предприятия и деятельность службы управления персоналом, проведен анализ вовлеченности руководителей в ООО «ПКФ Проминвест». На основе полученных данных разработаны предложения повышению вовлеченности линейных руководителей. В заключении подведены итоги в соответствии с поставленными задачами. / The final qualifying work includes an introduction, three parts, a conclusion, a reference list and applications. The theoretical part presents the basic concepts, goals of involvement, its types and forms, stages of implementation, criteria and methods. The practical part describes the general characteristics of the enterprise “PKF Prominvest” LLC and the work of its personnel department. The analysis of the involvement of managers in work in the organization is carried out. The proposals have been developed to increase the involvement of line managers. The conclusion summarizes the results in accordance with the tasks set.

Master's education is a quickly growing area of higher education that provides students higher lifetime earnings and lower levels of unemployment. Despite the benefits, the little research conducted over the past 20 years, using institutional, programmatic, and sociological student factors (e.g., age, race, and financial status) has had minimal success creating a universal model to understand what promotes the retention and graduation of master's students. C�t�'s identity capital model (ICM) holds that interactions of both sociological and agentic capital aid in the development of an individual's identity. While cultural capital is essential for building the foundation of identity, it is agentic capital that develops a strong sense of self, providing the ability to shift successfully between social contexts while remaining committed to life path goals despite inherent obstacles. The purpose of this study was to apply C�t�'s identity capital model to predict CACREP counseling and counseling psychology master's students' (n = 88) retention in their academic programs when the sociological factors of age and personal funding contributions were held constant. Using a quantitative, nonexperimental, survey study design, full-time students, in good standing, not enrolled in an online program completed the Multi-Measure Agentic Personality Scale20 assessment to measure the agentic characteristics of the ICM. The logistic regression analysis did not yield significant results, but data mining to discover data patterns did suggest future directions for research. A clearer understanding of the factors that promote retention could encourage institutions to create appropriate programmatic efforts to increase students' academic goal achievement and support their improved psychological well-being.