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This thesis addresses the design of multiple description lattice vector quantizer (MDLVQ) with a general number L of descriptions, L >= 3. In the previous work on MDLVQ with L>= 3, once the central and side lattice codebooks are fixed, the decoding quality is determined for all numbers k of received descriptions. Therefore, it is not possible to achieve tradeoffs between the quality of reconstruction for different values of k, 1<= k <= L-1. In order to overcome the above drawback, we propose two flexible MDLVQ schemes for L >= 3. Our first design employs a different reconstruction method than in prior work and a heuristic index assignment algorithm, which uses L-2 parameters to control the distortions for 2 <= k <= L-1. Experimental results for the cases L=3 and L=4 show that significant tradeoffs are achieved by controlling the parameters mentioned above. Our second design is based on a structured index assignment. We start with the case L=3 and then generalize the index assignment to any L >= 3. The structured index assignment is able to control the tradeoff by adjusting the sizes of some L-1 subsets of side lattice points. Another important contribution of the thesis is the derivation of analytical expressions of the distortions for the structured index assignment, under the high resolution assumption. These expressions show that a wide range of distortion values can be achieved. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>Russian realist writer Ivan Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons in 1861, the middle of the politically, socially and ideologically eventful nineteenth century. While the turbulent historical moment is certainly reflected in the imagined landscape of the novel, Turgenev's text is first and foremost a literary work with implications that extend beyond the moment of its conception. Through allusions to the classical pastoral and juxtaposition of social and economic hardship, Turgenev creates a disconcerting ironic pastoral, or Russian Arcadia, that is marked by tension between a discordant ideal and reality. Resolution can be achieved in two ways that mirror nature's duality: one may become brutal, nihilistic and destructive, or one may strive for harmony and endure with the earth. By contemplation of one's own nature and the limits imposed by culture and nature itself, Turgenev demonstrates that the individual can come to this harmony, or an adaptive equilibrium that is characterized by balance, stability, and enjoyment of sensory experience. </p> <p>Turgenev's ironic pastoral, his concern with human brutality and the madness attendant upon it, the recognition of boundaries, and the sensory as an enduring mode of experience and communication are revisited and reworked by Ukrainian-Canadians in the twentieth century. The 1987 anthology, Yarmarok: Ukrainian writing in Canada since the Second World War, represents one of the most comprehensive collections of Ukrainian-Canadian writing in English and brings together both accomplished and previously unpublished writers that include: Mykola Ponedilok, Ruth Andrishak, Wasyl Sofroniw Levytsky, Stefania Hurko, Oleh Zujewskyj, Dennis Gruending, Maara Haas, and Bob Wakulich. These writers draw upon personal and family history and memory, which are haunted by the revolution Turgenev anticipated in Fathers and Sons, to relate their Arcadias, and the equilibriums they envision for individuals striving for balance within the limits imposed by the Canadianizing environment.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p> It is possible to interpret multi-resolution analysis from both Fourier-domain and temporal/spatial domain stand-points. While a Fourier-domain interpretation helps in designing a powerful machinery for multi-resolution refinement on regular point-sets and lattices, most of its techniques cannot be directly generalized to the case of irregular sampling. Therefore, in this thesis we provide a new definition and formulation of multi-resolution refinement, based on a temporal/spatial-domain understanding, that is general enough to allow multi-resolution approximation of different spaces of functions by processing samples (or observations) that can be irregularly distributed or even obtained using different sampling methods. We then continue to provide a construction for designing and implementing classes of refinement schemes in these general settings. The framework for multi-resolution refinement that we discuss includes and extends the existing mathematical machinery for multi-resolution analysis; and the suggested construction unifies many of the schemes currently in use, and, more importantly, allows designing schemes for many new settings. </p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)