The structure of graphic symbol utterance constructed by children with typical development and also children with little or no functional speech often differs considerably from spoken utterances. Whether the structure of graphic symbol utterances constructed by these two groups is influenced by similar factors is as yet unknown, as a systematic comparison between the two groups of children has not been conducted. This study aimed to investigate and compare the graphic symbol utterances arranged by children with little or no functional speech with those arranged by their typically developing peers when they were matched according to receptive language age. The utterances were analysed in terms of three variables, namely content, order and intelligibility. The results indicated that children with little or no functional speech do not differ significantly to children with typical development on tasks of graphic symbol utterance construction. The results also indicated that children with higher receptive language age start to use the spoken language word order as a model when arranging graphic symbol utterances more than children with lower receptive language age. The findings suggest that receptive language age plays a role in graphic symbol utterance constructions. The use of structures that do not follow spoken language may be explained by effects of the visual modality. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

The main objectives of this research are to investigate and design low profile antennas for mobile handsets applications using the balanced concept. These antennas are considered to cover a wide range of wireless standards such as: DCS (1710¿1880 MHz), PCS (1850¿1990 MHz), UMTS (1920¿2170 MHz), WLAN (2400¿2500 MHz and 5000 ¿ 5800 MHz) and UWB frequency bands. Various antennas are implemented based on built-in planar dipole with a folded arm structure. The performance of several designed antennas in terms of input return loss, radiation patterns, radiation efficiency and power gain are presented and several remarkable results are obtained. The measurements confirm the theoretical design concept and show reasonable agreement with computations. The stability performance of the proposed antenna is also evaluated by analysing the current distribution on the mobile phone ground plane. The specific absorption rate (SAR) performance of the antenna is also studied experimentally by measuring antenna near field exposure. The measurement results are correlated with the calculated ones. A new dual-band balanced antenna using coplanar waveguide structure is also proposed, discussed and tested; this is intended to eliminate the balanced feed network. The predicted and measured results show good agreement, confirming good impedance bandwidth characteristics and excellent dual-band performance. In addition, a hybrid method to model the human body interaction with a dual band balanced antenna structure covering the 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz bands is presented. Results for several test cases of antenna locations on the body are presented and discussed. The near and far fields were incorporated to provide a full understanding of the impact on human tissue. The cumulative distribution function of the radiation efficiency and absorbed power are also evaluated. / UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

The main objectives of this research are to investigate and design low profile antennas for mobile handsets applications using the balanced concept. These antennas are considered to cover a wide range of wireless standards such as: DCS (1710-1880 MHz), PCS (1850-1990 MHz), UMTS (1920-2170 MHz), WLAN (2400-2500 MHz and 5000-5800 MHz) and UWB frequency bands. Various antennas are implemented based on built-in planar dipole with a folded arm structure. The performance of several designed antennas in terms of input return loss, radiation patterns, radiation efficiency and power gain are presented and several remarkable results are obtained. The measurements confirm the theoretical design concept and show reasonable agreement with computations. The stability performance of the proposed antenna is also evaluated by analysing the current distribution on the mobile phone ground plane. The specific absorption rate (SAR) performance of the antenna is also studied experimentally by measuring antenna near field exposure. The measurement results are correlated with the calculated ones. A new dual-band balanced antenna using coplanar waveguide structure is also proposed, discussed and tested; this is intended to eliminate the balanced feed network. The predicted and measured results show good agreement, confirming good impedance bandwidth characteristics and excellent dual-band performance. In addition, a hybrid method to model the human body interaction with a dual band balanced antenna structure covering the 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz bands is presented. Results for several test cases of antenna locations on the body are presented and discussed. The near and far fields were incorporated to provide a full understanding of the impact on human tissue. The cumulative distribution function of the radiation efficiency and absorbed power are also evaluated.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking System (PAEB) can utilize on-board sensors to detect pedestrians and take safety related actions. However, PAEB system only benefits the individual vehicle and the pedestrians detected by its PAEB. Additionally, due to the range limitations of PAEB sensors and speed limitations of sensory data processing, PAEB system often cannot detect or do not have sufficient time to respond to a potential crash with pedestrians. For further improving pedestrian safety, we proposed the idea for integrating the complimentary capabilities of V2V and PAEB (V2V-PAEB), which allows the vehicles to share the information of pedestrians detected by PAEB system in the V2V network. So a V2V-PAEB enabled vehicle uses not only its on-board sensors of the PAEB system, but also the received V2V messages from other vehicles to detect potential collisions with pedestrians and make better safety related decisions. In this thesis, we discussed the architecture and the information processing stages of the V2V-PAEB system. In addition, a comprehensive Matlab/Simulink based simulation model of the V2V-PAEB system is also developed in PreScan simulation environment. The simulation result shows that this simulation model works properly and the V2V-PAEB system can improve pedestrian safety significantly.

[pt] Com o crescimento da utilização das redes celulares para a transmissão de dados, as operadoras de telefonia móvel estão enfrentando um aumento dramático na utilização do recurso rádio para suprir esta nova necessidade. Com isto, estão sendo obrigadas a migrarem para novas tecnologias que propiciem uma alta eficiência espectral, permitindo assim uma melhor utilização do espectro disponível. Este trabalho descreve uma ferramenta de simulação desenvolvida para analisar o gerenciamento dos recursos de rádio, além de propor um novo algoritmo de alocação de canais de dados para sistemas móveis pessoais, permitindo a transmissão de voz e dados sobre a mesma interface aérea. É sabido que é extremamente difícil levar em conta todos os parâmetros que devem ser considerados em um sistema móvel real. Procurou-se então adotar os mais conhecidos modelos de propagação, de mobilidade e de tráfego de voz e de dados disponíveis na literatura, de forma a tentar aproximar a ferramenta de simulação o máximo possível do caso real. A contribuição deste trabalho é oferecer uma ferramenta de simulação para as redes GSM/HSCSD que permita a otimização da eficiência no uso do espectro disponível para transmissão. Esta ferramenta possibilita ao usuário, além de analisar a capacidade do sistema, o controle de potência e estratégias de handover, avaliar novos algoritmos de alocação de canal para o tráfego de voz e dados em conjunto. Ao final desta dissertação serão apresentados os resultados obtidos com a utilização de um novo algoritmo de alocação de canais para o tráfego de dados, além de realizar algumas outras simulações buscando maximizar a eficiência espectral do sistema utilizando deste novo algoritmo. / [en] Due to the increasing use of cellular networks for data transmission, mobile telephone operators are facing a dramatic raise in using radio resources to supply their demand. As a result, they are being forced to migrate to new technologies that provide high spectral efficiency, allowing an optimized use of available spectrum. This work describes the development of an advanced tool to analyze the operator management of radio transmission for personal mobile systems. The model was built considering well-known propagation, mobility, voice and data traffic for transmission assumptions, in order to approximate the developed tool to the real world mobile systems. The simulation tool is suited for GSM/HSCSD networks allowing engineers to optimize the efficient use of the available spectrum. It also permits the evaluation of system capacity as well as the analysis of power control and handover strategies. Another application exploited in this work is the investigation of resource allocation algorithms. A new algorithm for resource allocation in integrated voice and data environments was proposed and its performance was evaluated using the simulation tool.