Circadian clocks are responsible for scheduling many behavioral and physiological processes to occur at the most appropriate time of day. The resulting daily rhythms also synchronize (entrain) to external environmental cues, known as zeitgebers. This phenomenon of entrainment enables organisms to anticipate daily changes in environmental conditions such as sunrise/sunset, temperature variations, availability of prey, etc. Given the critical nature of entrainment to survival, it is no surprise that the mechanism is conserved across taxa. The misalignment of the intrinsic clock with the external environment results in a plethora of negative consequences, made apparent by studies involving shift work and jet lag. The focus of the present study is to investigate the chronobiology of Larinioides cornutus (Araneidae), a nocturnal orb-weaving spider, with an emphasis on its entrainment to light:dark cycles. Because spiders have received scarce attention with respect to their chronobiology, it is instructive to compare the properties of spider circadian systems with those of the more established circadian model systems, such as Drosophilaand Murines. We found that both lights-off and lights-on are equally influential zeitgeber cues for (determines the phasing of) both activity onset and offset. Locomotor activity typically begins within a half hour after nightfall, continues throughout the night, and ceases just prior to dawn. Phase shifting experiments show that these spiders can re-entrain within 2 days to a light/dark cycle shifted by 6 hours, and within 3 days when shifted by 12 hours. These rates of re-entrainment occur at an extremely accelerated rate compared to mammals, which readjust to a time shift at a rate of around 1 day/ 1 hour of phase shift. In other words, spiders have a minimal jet-lag response. This suggests an increased level of plasticity in the spider circadian clock that has yet to be observed in other organisms. Typical of circadian rhythms in nearly all organisms, activity also persisted (free-runs) under constant conditions. However, in constant darkness (DD), a drastic change in periodicity was revealed in 66% of individuals, from 23.4 to 25.2. This particular phenomenon is rare and likely indicates the possible interaction of multiple oscillators. Further evidence to support this interpretation is the consistent periods of the rhythm displayed before and after the change. In contrast, under constant light (LL) conditions, 65% of spiders were arrhythmic, with 4 individuals ceasing activity completely. Significant periods detected in LL were normally distributed over an unusually broad range, from 16.7 to 34.9 hours, suggesting a high sensitivity to light. Because of the unusual rates of re-entrainment to light/dark cycles, the spontaneous changes in free-running period under DD, and arrhythmicity in LL, we propose that spiders are valuable comparative model organism for elucidating fundamental mechanisms of circadian clocks.

<p> This thesis presents a derivation of a method to obtain two-body, diagonal and non-diagonal, reaction matrix elements for central and tensor forces respectively directly from nucleon-nucleon scattering phase shifts. This procedure eliminates the necessity for constructing a nuclear potential.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

An internet-based, real-time, Global Positioning System (GPS) ---synchronized relative to the wide-area frequency-monitoring network (FNET) ---has been developed at Virginia Tech. In this FNET system, an algorithm that employs the relationship between phasor angles and deviated frequency [13] is used to calculate both frequency and its rate of change. Tests of the algorithm disclose that, for non-pure sinusoidal input (as compared to pure sinusoidal input), significant errors in the output frequency will result. Three approaches for increasing the accuracy of the output frequency were compared. The first---increasing the number of samples per cycle N---proved ineffective. The second---using the average of the first estimated frequencies rather than the instant first estimated frequency as the resampling frequency---produces a moderate increase in accuracy of the frequency estimation. The third---multiple resampling---significantly increased accuracy. But both the second and the third become ineffective to the extent the input is not pure sinusoidal. From a practical standpoint, attention needs to be paid toward eliminating noise in the input data from the power grid so as to make it more purely sinusoidal. Therefore, it will be worthwhile to test more sophisticated digital filters for processing the input data before feeding it to the algorithm. / Master of Science

The system diagrams for the digital radio compatible with NASA's S-Band Space Network operating from 2025.8 - 2117.9 MHz (forward link) to 2200 - 2300 MHz (return link) are presented. The digital radio implementation includes binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and staggered quadrature phase shift keying (SQPSK). We have derived the system requirements for these modulation schemes from the Space Network User Guide (SNUG) and thereafter, derived system diagrams for the communication links. The designed system diagrams for the transceiver were implemented using Simulink models and USRP2 platform.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper considers the use of Amplitude-Phase Shift Keying (APSK) for a telemetry system. Variable rate turbo codes are used to improve the power efficiency of 16- and 32-APSK. We discuss compensation techniques for power amplifier nonlinearities. Simulation results show the improved spectral efficiency of this modulation scheme over those currently defined in telemetry standards.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / For simpler implementations of ultra high bit rate systems, combined analog/digital techniques, described here in, provide implementations with the smallest number of component count utilizing minimal “real-estate” and smallest DC power. While digital implementations with tradition Read Only Memory (ROM) and Digital to Analog Converters (DAC’s) have been proven in several commercial, NASA -CCSDS recommended, and U.S. DoD-IRIG standardized Feher’s QPSK (FQPSK) [2,3] products, such implementations can be further simplified, and in particular for ultra high bit rate product applications. Several waveform generating techniques such as linear approximation, analog approximation and mixed analog and linear approximations are investigated using preliminary simulation results.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / In 1992, international space agencies became concerned that increasing frequency band congestion, together with attempts by the mobile telephone industry to obtain additional bandwidth, would result in substantially more interference incidents. The CCSDS undertook a technical study to identify and recommend more bandwidth efficient modulation schemes, which would permit more users to co-exist in a frequency band while reducing interference incidents. This paper describes the contribution of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to that effort.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Commercial FQPSK-B receivers traditionally use symbol-by-symbol detection and have a 2 dB Eb=No loss relative to ideal QPSK at a bit error rate (BER) of 10^(-5). An enhanced FQPSK-B receiver using a Viterbi algorithm (VA) to perform trellis decoding is simulated and shown to have a 1.2 dB Eb=No improvement over symbol-by-symbol detection for 10^(-5)5 BER at the cost of increased complexity. A simplified Viterbi receiver with a reduced trellis and significantly less complexity is introduced with only a slight BER degradation compared to the full Viterbi receiver. In addition, a theoretical bit error probability expression for the symbol-by-symbol FQPSK-B receiver is derived and compared with simulation results.

Li, Pulan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-66). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Overview of wavelength division multiplexed passive optical network (WDM-PON) and colorless optical network unit (ONU) --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Implementation of colorless ONU --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Rayleigh backscattering in WDM-PON --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- Motivation of this thesis --- p.9 / Chapter 1.5 --- Outline of this thesis --- p.11 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Previous works of remodulation for WDM-PON --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- Devices utilized by colorless ONU in remodulation schemes --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Injection-locked Fabry-Perot laser diode at ONU --- p.13 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Reflective semiconductor optical amplifier --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Reflective electro-absorption modulator and semiconductor optical amplifier (REAM-SOA) --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3 --- Modulation methods in remodulation schemes --- p.18 / Chapter 2.4 --- Summary --- p.23 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- A remodulation scheme based on time-interleaved DPSK modulation format --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2 --- Operation principle: time-interleaving technology for phase-modulated signal --- p.27 / Chapter 3.3 --- System architecture --- p.28 / Chapter 3.4 --- Experimental results and discussion --- p.31 / Chapter 3.5 --- Effect of timing misalignment on proposed remodulation scheme --- p.33 / Chapter 3.6 --- Summary --- p.35 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Enhanced Tolerance to Rayleigh Backscattering in Remodulation Scheme Using Time-Interleaved DPSK Format --- p.37 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.37 / Chapter 4.2 --- Studies on Rayleigh backscattering suppression in optical domain --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- RB suppression in carrier-distributed schemes --- p.39 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- RB suppression in remodulation schemes --- p.40 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experimental setup and results --- p.42 / Chapter 4.3 --- Discussion on RB suppression effect of the proposed scheme --- p.46 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Theoretical study and simulation results --- p.46 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Experimental demonstration of spectral relationship between signals and RB crosstalk --- p.49 / Chapter 4.4 --- Summary --- p.53 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Conclusion and Future Works --- p.55 / Chapter 5.1 --- Conclusion of this thesis --- p.55 / Chapter 5.2 --- Future works --- p.57 / List of Publications --- p.59 / Bibliography --- p.60

Thesis (Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / This dissertation presents the development of a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) demodulator for nanosatellites that complies with both the limited resources associated with nanosatellites as well as the flexibility and configurability required for a software defined radio (SDR) platform. This research project is a component of a bigger project, which is to develop a high-speed receiver for nanosatellites, and aims to provide a practical solution to the need for communication technologies that support emerging nanosatellite applications, such as Earth observation and communications. The development of the QPSK demodulator follows an all-digital implementation approach. The main reason for selecting this approach is to have a system that is flexible and reconfigurable to comply with the SDR requirements. Another reason for selecting this approach is to comply with the low noise system, low power consumption as well as the small size and weight requirements associated with nanosatellites. The QPSK demodulator is implemented on an IGLOO2 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), due to its robustness to radiation and high-speed capability. Initially, the techniques used to design each subsystem of the QPSK demodulator are selected. Then, algorithms to digitally implement the designed subsystems are produced. Thereafter, the code for the digital QPSK demodulator is written and verified in Matlab first. The simulation of the Matlab-based QPSK demodulator performs satisfactorily. Subsequently, the code to implement the QPSK demodulator on an FPGA (IGLOO2) has been written in Libero, using VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL). The resulting FPGA-based QPSK demodulator has been emulated in Libero (an integration and development environment (IDE) for Microsemi FPGAs) using a test-bench as well as other analysis tools. The test-bench results are visualized using Modelsim. The results show that the demodulator can support data rates up to 13.25 Mbps if 16 samples-per-symbols are used, and up to 26.5 Mbps if 8 samples-per-symbols are used. It also has a very good bit-error-rate performance, which is simulated to be within a factor of 5 of the theoretical limit of QPSK modulation. Finally, the demodulator consumes less than 15 mW at the maximum operating speed. and has been coded to mitigate the effects of space radiation and noise contriution by the demodulator itself.