ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / This work explores aeronautical telemetry communication performance with the SOQPSK- TG ARTM waveforms when frequency-selective multipath corrupts received information symbols. A multi-antenna equalization scheme is presented where each antenna's unique multipath channel is equalized using a pilot-aided optimal linear minimum mean-square error filter. Following independent channel equalization, a maximal ratio combining technique is used to generate a single receiver output for detection. This multi-antenna equalization process is shown to improve detection performance over maximal ratio combining alone.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the measurement of business concentration by the Herfindahl- Hirschman Index (HHI). In the course of the examination, a modification to this method of measurement of business concentration is proposed, in terms of which the accuracy of the conventional depiction of the HHI can be enhanced by a formulation involving the Gini index. Computational advantages in the use of this new method are identified, which reveal the Ginibased HHI to be an effective substitute for its regular counterpart. It is found that theoretically and in practice, the proposed new method has strengths that favour its usage. The practical advantages of employing this method are considered with a view to encouraging the measurement of business concentration using the Gini-based index of the HHI. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verhandeling ondersoek die meting van sakekonsentrasie deur middel van die Herfindahl- Hirschman-indeks (HHI). ‘n Wysiging aan hierdie metode word voorgestel, deur middel waarvan die akkuraatheid van die konvensionele voorstelling van die HHI verhoog word, deur ‘n formulering wat die Gini-indeks betrek. Die berekeningsvoordele van hierdie nuwe metode word geïdentifiseer en dit word aangetoon dat die Gini-gebaseerde HHI ’n doeltreffende plaasvervanger vir sy meer bekende teenvoeter is. Daar word bevind dat die voorgestelde nuwe metode teoretiese en praktiese sterkpunte het wat die gebruik daarvan ondersteun. Die praktiese voordele van die voorgestelde metode word oorweeg met die oog op die aanmoediging van die gebruik van die Gini-gebaseerde HHI-indeks as maatstaf van sakekonsentrasie.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary aim of the present study was to examine whether the culture of a society influences the way in which people justify certain aggressive behaviours in certain situations. A total of 756 students from Spain, Japan and South Africa participated in completing the CAMA, a measure of justification of aggression. The results showed that there were significant differences within the countries. There were differences in the levels of acceptance of certain acts between these countries. Further fmdings also indicated that there was a difference between the males of the countries and between the females of these countries. It was found that cultural influences and the norms within these countries bring about differences in justification of aggression in different situations. There were also some general trends of acceptance, with direct and indirect verbal acts e.g. sarcasm, hindering and shouting being more acceptable than physical acts such as hitting, killing and torture. It is hoped that the present findings of this research will make members of society more aware of their responsibility to help reduce aggressive acts by teaching and reinforcing norms against it. It is also hoped that the international community will gain better insight into the fact that South-Africa faces unique challenges because of the political and social changes in the country. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die primêre doel van die huidige studie was om vas te stelof 'n samelewing se kultuur 'n rol speel by die regverdiging van sekere aggressiewe gedrag in bepaalde omstandighede. 'n Totaal van 756 studente van Spanje, Japan en Suid Afrika het die CAMA vraelys voltooi. Die vraelys meet die regverdiging van aggressie in sekere omstandighede. Betekenisvolle verskille is tussen die lande gevind. Daar is ook betekenisvolle verskille tussen die mans van die drie lande asook tussen die vrouens van die drie lande gevind. Daar is gevind dat kulturele verskille en die norme binne 'n samelewing meebring dat daar verskille is in die mate waarin samelewings sekere aggressiewe gedrag aanvaarbaar vind in sekere situasies. Daar was ook 'n groter algemene aanvaarbaarheid van verbale aggressie bv. sarkasme, verhindering en skreeu as fisiese aggressie soos slaan, om dood te maak en marteling. Hopelik maak hierdie navorsing mense meer bewus van elkeen in die samelewing se verantwoordelikheid om die norme teen geweld te versterk asook om die norme aan hulle nageslagte oor te dra. Verder sal die internasionale gemeenskap hopelik beter insig kry oor die unieke uitdagings wat Suid-Afrika bied as gevolg van die politieke en sosiale veranderinge in die land.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs) as suitable feed-structures for the Parabolic Dish Reflector antennas that are intended to form a large part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is currently the topic of conversation in various SKA research groups. The simulation of these structures however, relies on intensive computational resources, which can result in very long simulation runtimes - a serious problem for antenna designers. It was the purpose of the research to investigate efficient simulation techniques, based on the Method of Moments (MoM). In this thesis, the reader will be introduced to ways of improving FPA design by using resources such as High Performance Clusters, developing efficient MoM formulations for FPAs such as the Vivaldi antenna array and by developing efficient solution techniques for the resulting MoM equations by using techniques such as the Characteristic Basis Function Method (CBFM). In addition to the above mentioned methods, the concept of distributed computing is explored as a way to further aid the antenna designer in obtaining desired results in a reasonable time and with sufficient accuracy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die gebruik van Fokus Punt Samestellings (FPS) vir die voer van Paraboliese Skottel Antennas in die Square Kilometer Array (SKA), geniet tans baie aandag in verkeie navorsing-sirkels. Die analise van hierdie samestellings vereis egter intensiewe berekenings-infrastrukture, wat tot lang simulasies kan lei - ’n ernstige probleem vir antenna ontwerpers. Die doel van die skrywer se navorsing was om effektiewe simulasie metodes te ondersoek, gebaseer op die Moment Metode. In hierdie tesis, sal die leser bekendgestel word aan verskeie metodes om die ontwerp van Fokus Punt Samestellings doeltreffend te verrig; nl. die gebruik van Parallel Rekenaar Klusters, die ontwikkeling van effektiewe Moment Metode kode vir samestellings soos die Vivaldi antenna konfigurasie, asook die ontwikkeling van effektiewe oplos-metodes vir die matrikse wat deur die Moment Metode gelewer word, deur die sogenaamde Karakteristieke Basis Funksie Metode (KBFM) te gebruik. Hierby ingesluit word die konsep van verspreide numeriese berekening ondersoek, as ’n manier waarop die antenna ontwerper resultate binne ’n aanvaarbare tyd en akkuraatheid kan verkry.

The rapid development of data transfer through internet made it easier to send the data accurate and faster to the destination. There are many transmission media to transfer the data to destination like e-mails; at the same time it is may be easier to modify and misuse the valuable information through hacking. So, in order to transfer the data securely to the destination without any modifications, there are many approaches like cryptography and steganography. This paper deals with the image steganography as well as with the different security issues, general overview of cryptography, steganography and digital watermarking approaches.  The problem of copyright violation of multimedia data has increased due to the enormous growth of computer networks that provides fast and error free transmission of any unauthorized duplicate and possibly manipulated copy of multimedia information. In order to be effective for copyright protection, digital watermark must be robust which are difficult to remove from the object in which they are embedded despite a variety of possible attacks. The message to be send safe and secure, we use watermarking. We use invisible watermarking to embed the message using LSB (Least Significant Bit) steganographic technique. The standard LSB technique embed the message in every pixel, but my contribution for this proposed watermarking, works with the hint for embedding the message only on the image edges alone. If the hacker knows that the system uses LSB technique also, it cannot decrypt correct message. To make my system robust and secure, we added cryptography algorithm as Vigenere square. Whereas the message is transmitted in cipher text and its added advantage to the proposed system. The standard Vigenere square algorithm works with either lower case or upper case. The proposed cryptography algorithm is Vigenere square with extension of numbers also. We can keep the crypto key with combination of characters and numbers. So by using these modifications and updating in this existing algorithm and combination of cryptography and steganography method we develop a secure and strong watermarking method. Performance of this watermarking scheme has been analyzed by evaluating the robustness of the algorithm with PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and MSE (Mean Square Error) against the quality of the image for large amount of data. While coming to see results of the proposed encryption, higher value of 89dB of PSNR with small value of MSE is 0.0017. Then it seems the proposed watermarking system is secure and robust for hiding secure information in any digital system, because this system collect the properties of both steganography and cryptography sciences.

This study introduces a new analytical procedure based on the chi-square (x²) statistic to evaluate tree- ring weather relationships. An iterative x² method, developed previously for relating annual crop production to daily values of meteorological measurements, is applied to tree-ring data and compared to results obtained from correlation and bootstrapped response function analyses. All three analytical procedures use a southern Arizona chronology (Pinus arizonica Engelm.) and the latter two use monthly average meteorological data. The x² analysis revealed most of the relationships exhibited by the correlation and response function analyses as well as new linear and nonlinear associations. In addition, cardinal values were obtained that define daily thresholds of the meteorological variables at which the limitation to growth becomes significant. Some of the associations are plausible from the physical system but require more study to confirm or refute a real cause and effect. A few associations appear to be too late in the season or too early in the previous year to affect ring width. We recommend that this x² technique be added to the existing dendroclimatic procedures because it reveals many more possible cause and effect relationships.

共同基金是由投資信託公司向大眾募集資金，再轉投資到股票、債券、不動產等標的上，最後再分配投資收益的的一種工具。從自有共同基金開始至今已超越百年，而台灣地區方面，目前也是全民理財不可或缺的一項標的。 共同基金雖號稱是懶人投資，不用花費大量心思。但實際上，天下沒有白吃的午餐，投資人仍需投注精力了解趨勢，並從中挑選適當的標的。但儘管有許多理財專家提出經驗談，就一般投資大眾而言，如何挑選共同基金仍是具有挑戰性的工作。  為協助投資人以現有資訊，找出適當的投資標的，因此利用投信公會公布的資料，將基金依照Jensen值進行區分為大於零及小於零兩個群組，再以最小平方法探討兩個群組中，影響各種類型基金績效持續性的因素，以期能利用簡單的資訊，找出值得長期投資的標的。

The objective of this study is to estimate advertising effects on international tourismdemand for the leading Swedish winter destination, Åre. The increasing share of foreigninbound tourists in this destination region creates a strong interest by shareholders toidentify the factors responsible for this trend. According to traditional micro-economictheory, economic factors, such as income and price, are considered as main determinantsfor tourism demand (Song and Witt 2000). However, according to advertising theories(Comanor and Wilson, 1974) and previous tourism research (Bhagwat and Debruine, 2008;Divisekera and Kulendran, 2006), this study additionally focuses on the brand awarenessof Åre as perceived by international tourists. More concretely, advertising theoriesdistinguish between the brand and the information function of advertising (Nelson, 1974).The former function follows the idea that advertising increases the level of productdifferentiation to build up a base of loyal customers. By contrast, the information functionimplies that advertising primarily provides information about products in order to increasethe market transparency. Accordingly, in order to estimate the impact of advertisingexpenditures for off- and online channels as well as promotional activities, furtherexplanatory variables, e.g. mega events, are considered in this study (Salman, 2003; Songet al., 2010). By applying ordinary least square (OLS) methods, demand elasticitycoefficients are estimated for each of the sending countries Norway, Finland, Russia,Denmark and the UK. Results show that advertising is the main significant driver oftourism demand from the UK, Russia and Finland, while a comparably weak advertisingleverage can be shown for Denmark and Norway. Interestingly, in contrast to microeconomictheories tested in previous research, income and tourism price levels reveal asbeing less significant drivers for demand in all analysed tourism markets. In turn, theresults provide evidence that the increased usage of online channels most significantlyaffects consumers’ buying behaviour. Finally, with respect to brand image perception,results reveal that the destination of Åre is perceived as a brand by tourists from Denmark.Moreover, for customers from the countries Norway and Finland, Åre indicates a weakbrand perception, while tourists from Russia and the UK don’t perceive Åre as a brand atall. The results gained by this research conducted at the level of the tourism destinationprovide useful hints about the factors influencing travel behaviour of tourists from maininternational markets. The study supports destination managers to appropriately adjustmarketing campaigns according to the predominant level of brand perception in respectivesending countries. / KK-Foundation project ‘Engineering the Knowledge Destination’ (no. 20100260; Stockholm, Sweden).

Teoriniame darbe ištyrus Marijampolės miesto branduolio urbanistines ir architektūrines vertes, šiame praktiniame darbe siūlomas tolimesnis esamo miesto raidos modelis. Kuriant naujos architektūrinės išraiškos daugiafunkcę architektūrinę struktūrą, sukuriama jauki, humaniška viešoji erdvė tenkinanti šiuolaikinius miestietiškos gyvensenos poreikius. Kuriant naują struktūrą, atsižvelgiama į istorinį miesto aikštės perimetro užstatymą. / Explanatory notes.

Miestas - tai teritorija, suskaidyta į funkcines erdves: gyvenamuosius, pramoninius, paslaugų rajonus, senamiesčius ir naujamiesčius. Planuojant miestus reikia atsižvelgti ne tik į erdvę, kaip vietą, bet ir į specifinę, kiekvieną žmogų supančią individualią erdvę. Miestas – yra jo gyventojų „namai”, o miesto centras - branduolys, tai tarytum „svetainė”, reprezentatyviausia namų erdvė, erdvė, kurioje renkasi svečiai, rengiami susiėjimai, susitikimai su draugais. Šiame darbe kalbama apie miesto branduolį, kuris yra įsitvirtinęs pačioje seniausioje miesto dalyje, susidaręs per daugelį metų, turintis savo vystymosi raidos istoriją, užstatytas įvairių epochų statiniais. Kaip miesto branduolys, centrinis miesto taškas įvardijama - pagrindinė miesto aikštė, nuo kurios ir užsimezga miesto raida. Marijampolė, vienas jauniausių, gana sudėtingos praeities, šiuo metu besiplečiantis ir modernėjantis Lietuvos miestas, turintis savo raidos istoriją, bei jau susiformavusį miesto branduolį, su savo privalumais ir trūkumais išryškėjusiais per daugelį metų. Čia mes susipažinsime su miestų branduolių formavimosi tendencijomis, išsiaiškinsime priežastis darančias įtaką miestų raidai. Pirmoje darbo dalyje aptariama miesto branduolio sąvoka, jo reikšmė miestui, taip pat apžvelgiama miestų centrų raida, bei projektavimo kriterijai nuo antikos laikų iki šių dienų Lietuvoje ir užsienio šalyse. Antrojoje darbo dalyje atliekama užsienio šalių branduolių regeneracijos pavyzdžių paieška, bei analizė... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / A town is a territory, divided into functional spaces occupied by living, industry, and service, old and new parts of town. Specific, individual space surrounding each person must be taken into account when planning a city as well as the space itself. The city is home for the local citizenry, and the center of city is the space which can be compared to the sitting-room of the home where various celebrations are held and guests invited. The core of a town is the main topic of the master thesis. The core was built up during a long period of time, has its own development history (therefore buildings associated with different periods of architecture can be found here) and is located in the oldest part of the town. The town square which is the beginning of the development of the city is considered to be the core of the town. Marijampolė is a town of complex past nevertheless it is one of the youngest and currently developing compared to other similar towns in Lithuania. It has its own development history, a core with its advantages and disadvantages, and the core is formed during the years. We are going to get acquainted with the trends of formation of town cores and find out the reasons making influence to the development of towns. The first part of the master thesis is dedicated for the analysis of the term 'core of the town'. Also, the influence a core is making to the town is depicted as well as history of centers of towns, design criteria beginning from the antiquity and... [to full text]