No / Avoiding collision among contending customer premise equipments (CPEs) attempting to associate with a base station (BS) in a wireless regional area network (WRAN) is a challenging issue. The collision probability is highly dependent upon the size of the initial contention window and the number of contending CPEs. To reduce the collision probability among CPEs in order to start the ranging process in an IEEE 802.22 network, the BS needs to adjust the initial contention window size. This paper provides an analytical framework to estimate the ranging request collision probability depending upon the size of the initial contention window and the number of CPEs attempting to join the IEEE WRAN cell. The accuracy of the estimated curve is analyzed for various numbers of contention CPEs on the basis of the relative errors. The numerical results confirm that the approximation works reasonably well for finding the ranging request collision probability for any number of contention CPEs at a particular value of initial contention window size. Moreover, this approximation provides the threshold size for a contention window to start the initial ranging process for any number of CPEs in an IEEE 802.22 network. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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De nombreuses recherches empiriques montrent que la façon dont les locuteurs et locutrices parlent peut varier en fonction du contexte, des dispositions mentales des locuteurs·trices, du type de la relation interpersonnelle (horizontale ou verticale) qu’entretiennent interlocuteurs·trices, de l’environnement culturel, etc. Mais en continuant d’exposer le grand public à des données incomplètes s’appuyant sur des stéréotypes de genres, les médias continuent d’entretenir l’idée, que les hommes et les femmes parlent différemment ; il y a donc une discordance entre la réalité des pratiques langagières et la représentation que les individus s’en font (Freed 2014). Notre étude du masculin et du féminin dans quatre séries de BDs de science-fiction franco-belges a pour but de vérifier si les héros et héroïnes de ces quatre séries sont représenté·e·s selon des stéréotypes de genre. Concernant le physique, comment héroïnes et héros sont-ils représentés ? Y a-t-il une frontière nette entre représentation de la féminité et de la masculinité ? Et, concernant la requête du type demande de faire, les héroïnes et héros formulent-ils différemment leurs requêtes ? Ces trois questions nous permettent de savoir si le lectorat des quatre séries de BDs analysées est exposé aux stéréotypes de genre. Les seuls stéréotypes de genre exposés s’appliquent aux corps et au vêtements (sauf dans une série). Pour le reste, attitudes, comportements, façons de parler, les stéréotypes sont globalement évacués. Il en ressort que la féminité et la masculinité s’inscrivent sur un continuum du genre. Pour ce qui est de la requête, dans deux séries les héroïnes se distinguent de leurs partenaires masculins du point de vue du fond de la requête (c.-à-d. de son objet), mais pas du point de vue de la forme et ce schéma est un corrélat de l’absence de leadership des partenaires masculins et révèle l’état mental de ces derniers ou la crainte de la prise de risque. Nous parlons alors de schémas de requêtes différenciées (et non genrées). Dans la troisième BD, le schéma des requêtes est genré dans la forme (et non dans le fond) dans la mesure où l’héroïne emploie davantage de requêtes indirectes que le héros, mais ce schéma n’est aucunement corrélé au manque de pouvoir de l’héroïne, qui, bien au contraire, jouit d’un grand pouvoir symbolique (probablement raison pour laquelle, le fond de ses requêtes est identique à celui du héros). Dans la quatrième série, celle où la représentation corporelle des hommes et des femmes est globalement similaire, on ne trouve ni schéma de requête genré ni schéma de requête différencié. La variation stylistique qui caractérise la nature directe ou indirecte des requêtes des personnages fictifs étudiés est fonction de l’urgence de la situation (contextuel), de leur expertise ou pouvoir (relation verticale) ou de leur état mental. Ils et elles privilégient la sauvegarde des faces à mesure que le caractère anxiogène du contexte de l’énonciation s’éloigne ou s’ils·elles entretiennent une relation interpersonnelle horizontale avec leur(s) allocutaire(s). Nos résultats sur la requête sont ainsi conformes avec les recherches empiriques : dans un cas ils illustrent la manifestation d’un des aspects du style langagier féminin et dans les trois autres, ils invalident l’existence de stéréotypes langagiers féminins dans le sens ou ces derniers sont dépassés par le contexte situationnel ou la relation interpersonnelle. / A significant number of case studies have shown that the way individuals speak, be they men or women, varies according to variables as the kind of relationship (vertical or horizontal) existing between interlocutors, mental state of speakers, context, culture and so forth. However, as Freed (2014) states, the mass media keep exposing their large audience to incomplete or erroneous data and stereotypes concerning the way men and women speak. Thus, individuals keep thinking that there is such a thing as «women and men speak differently». To put it in a nutshell, the way men and women speak is at odds with what occurs in reality. Our study about masculinity and femininity within four series of Franco-Belgian science-fictional comics aims at verifying how masculinity and femininity are represented in the four heroines and their male counterpart or partner(s). On the ground of non-linguistics representation, how are the female and male characters represented ? And does a clear line delineate masculinity and femininity ? Second, on the ground of linguistics, do the heroines phrase their requests differently than do the hero or male partner(s) ? In other words, are female characters more enclined than male characters to formulate indirect requests ? These three questions lead us to determine if the lectorate is exposed to gendered stereotypes. Our results show that stereotypes are only confined into the bodies (and at a certain point, the clothing). Other than that, attitudes and the way the characters speak are not bound to gendered stereotypes. Concerning the analysis of the requests, in two of our series, there is a difference between the requests made by the heroine and the ones made by the male in terms of the content of the requests. Therefore, we say that their request schema is not gendered but differentiated. That is to say, the content of the requests made by the males is correlated to their lack of power and reveal either their mental states or their being concerned with risk taking. In the third comic, we observe indeed a gendered schema of requests between the heroine and her male counterpart, the latter phrasing more direct requests. Conversely to the two previously mentioned comics, here, the stylish gendered request schema is not correlated with the heroine lack of power, that’s probably why both characters’ content of requests is the same. In the fourth series, which is the one where men and women are almost physically alike, we neither observe differentiated pattern of request nor gendered pattern of requests. Globally, in the four series, male and female characters articulate direct requests according to the emergency (contextual), their expertise or power (vertical relationship with interlocutor) or their mental state ; moreover, they indulge themselves into face-saving speech strategies as the emergency diminishes or disappears or if they have an horizontal type of relationship with their interlocutors. Thus, the variation is either stylistic or due to interpersonal relationship. Our results are not at odds with the empirical data : in one case, they illustrate the display of one aspect of the feminine language stereotype, and in the three other ones they invalidate the existence of stereotyped language styles in the sense that the stereotypes are overcome by the context or the interpersonal relationship.

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By working as an intern with the Quotation Officer of Sabena Technics Nîmes facility,an aircraft maintenance company, this degree project highlights the different factors totake into account in a quotation of civil planes (B737/B767/A320/A330) by analysingwork packages from airline company, applying a process to estimate the importantdata as the man hours or tools, and using my technical knowledge to understandmaintenance tasks. Management knowledge for commercial sale reviews was usefulas well, this job is in the middle of the commercial team and and the technicalteam. Finally, a critical opinion of the process has been made in order to propose animprovement of the next quotations. / Genom att arbeta som praktikant hos offerterbetaren på Sabena Technics anläggningi Nîmes, ett underhållsföretag för flygplan, belyser detta examensarbete de olikafaktorersom ska beaktas i en underhållsoffert för civila flygplan (B737/B767/A320/A330).Detta gjordes genom att analysera arbetspaket från flygbolag, tillämpa en process föratt uppskatta viktiga uppgifter som arbetstimmar eller verktyg, och använda minatekniska kunskaper för att förstå underhållsuppgifter. Kunskaper om förvaltning avkommersiella försäljningsöversikter var också användbara, eftersom det här jobbetligger mitt emellan det kommersiella teamet och det tekniska teamet. Slutligen harjag gjort en kritisk bedömning av processen för att föreslå en förbättring av framtidaofferter.

The thesis investigates the extent to which cross-border taking of evidence in civil and com-mercial matters in relation to Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda is allowed. Such evidence-taking is not only governed by the domestic law of the state seeking evidence abroad and that of the state where the relevant means of proof are located, but also by public international law, and more specifically by the concept of sovereignty. The ad-missibility of the cross-border taking of evidence under public international law depends on whether or not evidence-gathering in civil litigation is regarded as a judicial act, which violates sovereignty when performed on foreign territory, or as a purely private act. In the first case, the evidentiary material has to be obtained through channels of international judicial assistance. Such assistance can either be rendered based on the basis of an international treaty, or through courtoisie internationale. No international judicial assistance is necessary in cases of a so-called “transfer of foreign evidence”, provided no compulsion is applied which infringes the sovereignty of the foreign state. The thesis analyses the taking of evidence abroad based on the Hague Evidence Convention, and the Hague Procedure Convention. It further expounds how evidence located in Switzer-land, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda can be obtained for the benefit of civil proceed-ings pending abroad in the absence of any relevant international treaty. The thesis also exam-ines under what conditions a litigant in civil proceedings in the aforementioned countries may request evidence to be taken on foreign soil. The position of cross-border taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters in the said countries is assessed, and suggestions are made on how such status quo may be improved. The thesis makes an attempt to establish the basic prin-ciples for a convention on evidence-taking in civil and commercial matters between South Af-rica, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda. The development of such principles, however, is only possible once the similarities and differences in the procedure for the taking of evidence and the means of proof in the relevant laws of the aforesaid countries have been identified. / Public, Constitutional, & International / LL.D.

When designing architectures and protocols for data traffic requiring real-time services, one of the major design goals is to guarantee that traffic deadlines can be met. However, many real-time applications also have additional requirements such as high throughput, high reliability, or energy efficiency. High-performance embedded systems communicating heterogeneous traffic with high bandwidth and strict timing requirements are in need of more efficient communication solutions, while wireless industrial applications, communicating control data, require support of reliability and guarantees of real-time predictability at the same time. To meet the requirements of high-performance embedded systems, this thesis work proposes two multi-wavelength high-speed passive optical networks. To enable reliable wireless industrial communications, a framework in­corporating carefully scheduled retransmissions is developed. All solutions are based on a single-hop star topology, predictable Medium Access Control algorithms and Earliest Deadline First scheduling, centrally controlled by a master node. Further, real-time schedulability analysis is used as admission control policy to provide delay guarantees for hard real-time traffic. For high-performance embedded systems an optical star network with an Arrayed Waveguide Grating placed in the centre is suggested. The design combines spatial wavelength re­use with fixed-tuned and tuneable transceivers in the end nodes, enabling simultaneous transmis­sion of both control and data traffic. This, in turn, permits efficient support of heterogeneous traf­fic with both hard and soft real-time constraints. By analyzing traffic dependencies in this mul­tichannel network, and adapting the real-time schedulability analysis to incorporate these traffic dependencies, a considerable increase of the possible guaranteed throughput for hard real-time traffic can be obtained. Most industrial applications require using existing standards such as IEEE 802.11 or IEEE 802.15.4 for interoperability and cost efficiency. However, these standards do not provide predict­able channel access, and thus real-time guarantees cannot be given. A framework is therefore de­veloped, combining transport layer retransmissions with real-time analysis admission control, which has been adapted to consider retransmissions. It can be placed on top of many underlying communication technologies, exemplified in our work by the two aforementioned wireless stan­dards. To enable a higher data rate than pure IEEE 802.15.4, but still maintaining its energy saving properties, two multichannel network architectures based on IEEE 802.15.4 and encompassing the framework are designed. The proposed architectures are evaluated in terms of reliability, utiliza­tion, delay, complexity, scalability and energy efficiency and it is concluded that performance is enhanced through redundancy in the time and frequency domains.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:29:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme Strenger.pdf: 560594 bytes, checksum: d1f24191ad2a70b312f13e934462bf6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-05-13 / The aim of this study is to develop a constitutional analysis of article 285-A, which added to the Civil Process Code the possibility for the judge to judge a lawsuit for its merit, denying the request, without quoting the defendant. The analysis of constitutional principles, especially regarding the process of law, as well as of the contradictory and the reasonable duration of the process shall provide better understanding on the modern process science, which obeys the Constitution. The interpretation of the 285-A article is needed, followed by the new legislative alterations, mainly on Laws 11.232/06 and 11.276/06, given the fact that they bring forth the new mentality of the process legislator, influenced by Constitutional Amendment nº 45 / O presente tema tem como finalidade a análise constitucional do artigo 285-A, que adicionou ao Código de Processo Civil a possibilidade de o juiz julgar uma ação improcedente, apreciando o mérito, sem citar o réu. A análise de princípios constitucionais, em especial do devido processo legal, do contraditório e da razoável duração do processo, dará suporte para melhor compreensão do cientificismo processual moderno, pautado pela obediência à Constituição. A interpretação do artigo 285-A se faz necessária, acompanhada das novas alterações legislativas, principalmente das Leis 11.232/06 e 11.276/06, que traduzem a nova mentalidade do legislador processual, influenciado pela Emenda Constitucional nº. 45

[pt] Veículos autônomos ou Higly Automated Vehicles (HAVs) vêm trazendo novos paradigmas para o campo da ergonomia automotiva. A partir do momento em que motoristas se encontram fora de um loop contínuo de tomada de decisão, suas capacidades de retomada de controle manual do veículo durante situações de emergência são comprometidas. Para mitigar este problema, muitos autores acreditam que um maior entendimento dos padrões de aquisição de informação durante retomadas de controle em automação veicular pode fornecer insumos para a concepção de ferramentas designadas a auxiliar o motorista nesta tarefa, ao fornecer informações relevantes em momentos de necessidade. Baseado nestas questões, esta pesquisa visou categorizar o acesso de motoristas a diferentes informações oferecidas em interfaces de veículos autônomos durante a retomada de controle em diferentes níveis de automação. A pesquisa abordou o problema por meio de experimentos em simuladores de condução, onde motoristas foram expostos a diferentes cenários de retomada de controle, e seu seus padrões de olhar foram avaliados, para se testar a hipótese de que eles geralmente acessam a informação presente na interface apenas durante a retomada de controle em si, para checar o estado do sistema. Os resultados sugerem que o olhar do motorista está sujeito a influência de dois fatores: nível de automação e tarefa desempenhada. Foi observado que uma maior a quantidade de informação oferecida na interface aumenta concentração de olhares do motorista nesta região. Informações ativas sobre o ambiente melhoraram o desempenho do motorista durante as retomadas, porém tal benefício não se refletiu em uma maior usabilidade percebida. / [en] Highly automated vehicles (HAVs) are bringing new perspectives for the field of automotive ergonomics. By the time the driver is not constantly on the decision-making loop of the task, his/her performance for resuming control of the automation in safety-critical situations seems to be diminished. To mitigate this problem, many authors believe that by understanding drivers information scanning patterns and decision-making process during transitions of control in vehicle automation it is possible to design tools better adapted to support them in this activity, by providing relevant information in appropriate times. Based on this issue, this research aimed to categorize driver s reliance on the different information provided by the system s HMI during transitions of control in different levels of automation. The research followed a driving simulator experimental approach, where drivers were exposed to different take-over scenarios and their gaze behaviour was measured to test the hypothesis that they generally rely on information on the road to gain situation awareness, and only access the information on the HMI in cases of transitions of control, to check the system status. The results suggest that driver s gaze behaviour patterns are susceptible to influence of two main factors: the level of automation and the task in hand. It was observed that the more information presented on the HMI, the more drivers will look at it. Active information about the road environment have enhanced drivers performance during transitions of control, but it was not reflected in terms of perceived usability of the systems.