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 / The focus of the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project is to enhance the current telemetry technology (IRIG106) and still maintain the reliability of the current technology. The Mixed Networking environment is composed of a wired network based on standard 802.11 and a modified wireless based on 802.11. Determining the viability of the networking scheme within the iNET project is critical. The QoS features such as delay and jitter are measures of performance specified by user conditions. These QoS features are measured against current legacy links. This paper will show a comparison of the three QoS levels (best effort, assured, and premium services) that the network provides and investigate QoS performance of the Mixed Network in the iNET environment. This will provide a framework for assessing the strength and weakness of the Mixed Network as well as scoping further research.

Criticality calculations are often performed in MCNP5 using the Shannon entropy as an indicator of source convergence for the given neutron transport problem. The Shannon entropy is a concept that comes from information theory. The Shannon entropy is calculated for each batch in MCNP5, and it has been shown that the Shannon entropy tends to converge to a single value as the source distribution converges. MCNP5 has its own criteria for when the Shannon entropy has converged and recommends a number for how many batches should be skipped; however, this value for how many batches should be skipped is often not very accurate and has room for improvement. This work will investigate an approach for using the Shannon entropy source distribution convergence information obtained in a shorter simulation to predict the required number of generations skipped in the reference case with desired statistical precision. In several test cases, it has been found that running a lesser number of particles per batch produces a similar Shannon entropy graph when compared to running more particles per batch. Then, by appropriate adjustment through a synthetic model, one is able to determine when the Shannon entropy will converge by running fewer particles, finding the point where it converges and then using this value to determine how many batches one should skip for a given problem. This reduces computational time and any "guessing" involved when deciding how many batches to skip. Thus, the purpose of this research is to develop a model showing how one can use this concept and produce a streamlined approach for applying this concept to a criticality problem.

Information theoretical measures are used to design, from first principles, an objective function that can drive a learning machine process to a solution that is robust to perturbations in parameters. Full analytic derivations are given and tested with computational examples showing that indeed the procedure is successful. The final solution, implemented by a robust learning machine, expresses a balance between Shannon differential entropy and Fisher information. This is also surprising in being an analytical relation, given the purely numerical operations of the learning machine.

<p><strong>Titel:                                   </strong>Det ligger i människans natur att berätta historier - <em>Hur corporate storytelling på intranätet kan öka personalens tillfredsställelse</em></p><p><strong>Författare:                         </strong>Maria Karlsson & Cecilia Lindberg</p><p><strong>Handledare:                      </strong>Kent Sahlgren<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Nivå:                                  </strong>Kandidat i marknadsföring, (15 högskolepoäng), Våren 2010<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Nyckelord:                         </strong>Corporate Storytelling<strong>, </strong>Intern marknadsföring,<strong> </strong>Kommunikationsföringsverktyg, Shannon & Weaver modell, Intranätet, tillfredsställelse</p><p><strong>Fråga:                                </strong>Hur kan stora svenska banker använda intern Corporate Storytelling på sitt intranät för att öka personalens tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen?</p><p><strong>Purpose:                            </strong>Denna uppsats avser beskriva och förklara hur stora svenska banker i praktiken kan använda intern storytelling som ett verktyg på företagets intranät för att öka personalens tillfredställelse på arbetsplatsen.</p><p><strong>Method:                            </strong>En kvalitativ forskningssats har används på ett fallföretag,<strong> </strong>Swedbank. </p><p><strong>Teoretiskt perspektiv:     </strong>Vi börjar det teoretiska avsnittet med att implementera corporate storytelling till kommunikationsprocessen mellan ett företag och dess personal, för att sedan presentera våran omarbetade version av Shannon och Weavers modell “the mathematical theory of communication” model.  Det teoretiska avsnittet analyserar hur corporate storytelling kan användas för att öka personalens tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen.</p><p><strong>Empiriskt perspektiv:      </strong>Det empiriska avsnittet presenterar resultatet av intervjuerna med de tre respondenterna på vårt fallföretag, Swedbank.<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Slutsats:                            </strong>Studien visar att corporate storytelling kan användas för att öka personalen tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen. Denna tillfredsställelse är dock beroende av att företaget anpassar storytellingen efter personalens vardag på arbetsplatsen.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

Titel:                                   Det ligger i människans natur att berätta historier - Hur corporate storytelling på intranätet kan öka personalens tillfredsställelse Författare:                         Maria Karlsson &amp; Cecilia Lindberg Handledare:                      Kent Sahlgren Nivå:                                  Kandidat i marknadsföring, (15 högskolepoäng), Våren 2010 Nyckelord:                         Corporate Storytelling, Intern marknadsföring, Kommunikationsföringsverktyg, Shannon &amp; Weaver modell, Intranätet, tillfredsställelse Fråga:                                Hur kan stora svenska banker använda intern Corporate Storytelling på sitt intranät för att öka personalens tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen? Purpose:                            Denna uppsats avser beskriva och förklara hur stora svenska banker i praktiken kan använda intern storytelling som ett verktyg på företagets intranät för att öka personalens tillfredställelse på arbetsplatsen. Method:                            En kvalitativ forskningssats har används på ett fallföretag, Swedbank.  Teoretiskt perspektiv:     Vi börjar det teoretiska avsnittet med att implementera corporate storytelling till kommunikationsprocessen mellan ett företag och dess personal, för att sedan presentera våran omarbetade version av Shannon och Weavers modell “the mathematical theory of communication” model.  Det teoretiska avsnittet analyserar hur corporate storytelling kan användas för att öka personalens tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen. Empiriskt perspektiv:      Det empiriska avsnittet presenterar resultatet av intervjuerna med de tre respondenterna på vårt fallföretag, Swedbank. Slutsats:                            Studien visar att corporate storytelling kan användas för att öka personalen tillfredsställelse på arbetsplatsen. Denna tillfredsställelse är dock beroende av att företaget anpassar storytellingen efter personalens vardag på arbetsplatsen.  

Les technologies actuelles permettent d'explorer le génome entier pour identifier des variants génétiques associés à des phénotypes particuliers, notamment de maladies. C'est le rôle de la bioinformatique de répondre à cette problématique. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, un nouvel outil logiciel a été développé qui permet de mesurer avec une bonne précision le nombre de marqueurs génétiques effectivement indépendants correspondant à un ensemble de marqueurs génotypés dans une population donnée. Cet algorithme repose sur la mesure de l'entropie de Shannon contenue au sein de ces marqueurs, ainsi que des niveaux d'information mutuelle calculés sur les paires de SNPs choisis au sein d'une fenêtre de SNPs consécutifs, dont la taille est un paramètre du programme. Il a été montré que ce nombre de marqueurs indépendants devient constant dès que la population est homogène avec une taille suffisante (N > 60 individus) et que l'on utilise une fenêtre assez grande (taille > 100 SNPs). Ce calcul peut avoir de nombreuses applications pour l'exploitation des données.Une analyse génome-entier a été réalisée sur le photo-vieillissement. Elle a porté sur 502 femmes caucasiennes pour lesquelles un grade de photo-vieillissement a été évalué selon une technologie bien établie. Les femmes ont été génotypées sur des puces Illumina OmniOne (1M SNPs), et deux gènes ont été identifiés (STXBP5L et FBX040) associés à un SNP passant le seuil de Bonferroni, dont l'implication dans le photo-vieillissement était jusqu'alors inconnue. De plus, cette association a aussi été retrouvé dans deux autres phénotypes suggérant un mécanisme moléculaire commun possible entre le relâchement cutané et les rides. On n'observe pas de réplication au niveau du critère lentigines, la troisième composante étudiée du photo-vieillissement.Ces travaux sont en cours de publication dans des revues scientifiques internationales à comité de lecture.

Constrained codes have been used in data storage systems, such as magnetic tapes, CD’s and DVD’s, in order to reduce the likelihood of errors by predictable noise. The study of constrained codes is based on the study of sofic shifts, which are sets of bi-infinite sequences that can be presented using labeled directed graphs called presentations. In this thesis, we will primarily focus on two classes of sofic shifts, namely shifts of finite type (SFT’s) and periodic-finite-type shifts (PFT’s), and examine their properties. We first consider Shannon covers of sofic shifts. A Shannon cover of a sofic shift is a deterministic presentation with the smallest number of vertices among all deterministic presentations of the shift. Indeed, a Shannon cover is used as a canonical presentation of a sofic shift, and furthermore, it is used when computing the capacity of the shift or when constructing a finite-state encoder. We follow an algorithm by Crochemore, Mignosi and Restivo which constructs a deterministic presentation of an SFT and we see how to derive a Shannon cover from the presentation under their algorithm. Furthermore, as a method to determine whether a given deterministic presentation is a Shannon cover of a sofic shift, we will provide, based on research by Jonoska, a sufficient condition for a given presentation to have the smallest number of vertices among all presentations of the shift. We then move our focus towards PFT’s, and investigate new properties of PFT’s from various perspectives. We define three types of periods that can be associated with a PFT and do pairwise comparisons between them. Also, we consider the zeta function of a PFT, which is a generating function for the number of periodic sequences in the PFT, and present a simple formula to compute the zeta function of a PFT. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mathematics & Statistics) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-08 14:08:36.876

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the heavy metal pollution on microbial diversity along the gradient from a platinum mine tailings dam using culture-dependent (plating methods) and molecular methods. Tailings and soil samples were collected from seven sites (6 samples per site) at increasing distances from the tailings dam. Samples were collected over a two year period and included two rainy and two dry periods. Concentrations of various heavy metals were determined using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The results demonstrated that seasonal variations in metal concentrations occurred and also that concentrations were significantly different'(P < 0.05) between the experimental sites for each metal. The relative relationship between metals was in the following order: Al > Ni > Cu > Cr. Since soil metal concentration benchmarks for South Africa are lacking, the concentrations were compared to the Canadian microbial benchmarks (MB) and Netherlands maximum permissible concentrations (MPC). Concentrations of most of the heavy metals exceeded the MB and MPC. Levels and diversity of culturable fungi and bacteria at each site were determined using plate count methods. Results indicated that levels of bacteria and fungi were not suppressed by high concentrations of heavy metals. Significantly higher levels (P < 0.05) of fungi were found at the sites on the tailings dam (higher concentrations of heavy metals), compared to sites more than 300 m away. A commonly used soil health index (Shannon-Weaver diversity index) was used to compare microbial community diversity at each site and to evaluate whether or not the heavy metal contamination impacted negatively on these soil bacterial and fungal communities. Shannon-Weaver diversity indices were higher at sites on and close to the tailings dam than sites more than 300 m away. However, ratio of fungal to bacterial levels as determined by plate counts was inconsistent. Representatives of bacterial species that were grouped using colony morphology and whole cell protein profiles were identified by 16S rDNA sequences as Bacillus barbaricus (B. barbaricus) and -Paenibacillus lautus {P. Lautus). Restriction enzyme digest, SDS-PAGE and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analyses provided supporting evidence that representatives were correctly grouped. Cluster analysis results demonstrated that the RAPD profiles of the metal tolerant P. lautus representatives were sufficiently dissimilar to discriminate between individuals from the spatially separated sites. The spatially separated sites also represented sites with high and low heavy metal concentrations. Observed genetic variability was thus also associated with varying levels of heavy metals. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the potential of using RAPD analysis as biomarkers for genotoxic effects of heavy metals on bacterial genomes. / Masters / Thesis (M.Sc. (Microbiology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

We consider the problem of extracting a specific feature from a noisy signal generated by a multi-channels Remote Field Eddy Current Sensor. The sensor is installed on a mobile robot whose mission is the detection of anomalous regions in metal pipelines. Given the presence of noise that characterizes the data series, anomaly signals could be masked by noise and therefore difficult to identify in some instances. In order to enhance signal peaks that potentially identify anomalies we consider an entropy filter built on a-posteriori probability density functions associated with data series. Thresholds based on the Neyman-Pearson criterion for hypothesis testing are derived. The algorithmic tool is applied to the analysis of data from a portion of pipeline with a set of anomalies introduced at predetermined locations. Critical areas identifying anomalies capture the set of damaged locations, demonstrating the effectiveness of the filter in detection with Remote Field Eddy Current Sensor.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the heavy metal pollution on microbial diversity along the gradient from a platinum mine tailings dam using culture-dependent (plating methods) and molecular methods. Tailings and soil samples were collected from seven sites (6 samples per site) at increasing distances from the tailings dam. Samples were collected over a two year period and included two rainy and two dry periods. Concentrations of various heavy metals were determined using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The results demonstrated that seasonal variations in metal concentrations occurred and also that concentrations were significantly different'(P < 0.05) between the experimental sites for each metal. The relative relationship between metals was in the following order: Al > Ni > Cu > Cr. Since soil metal concentration benchmarks for South Africa are lacking, the concentrations were compared to the Canadian microbial benchmarks (MB) and Netherlands maximum permissible concentrations (MPC). Concentrations of most of the heavy metals exceeded the MB and MPC. Levels and diversity of culturable fungi and bacteria at each site were determined using plate count methods. Results indicated that levels of bacteria and fungi were not suppressed by high concentrations of heavy metals. Significantly higher levels (P < 0.05) of fungi were found at the sites on the tailings dam (higher concentrations of heavy metals), compared to sites more than 300 m away. A commonly used soil health index (Shannon-Weaver diversity index) was used to compare microbial community diversity at each site and to evaluate whether or not the heavy metal contamination impacted negatively on these soil bacterial and fungal communities. Shannon-Weaver diversity indices were higher at sites on and close to the tailings dam than sites more than 300 m away. However, ratio of fungal to bacterial levels as determined by plate counts was inconsistent. Representatives of bacterial species that were grouped using colony morphology and whole cell protein profiles were identified by 16S rDNA sequences as Bacillus barbaricus (B. barbaricus) and -Paenibacillus lautus {P. Lautus). Restriction enzyme digest, SDS-PAGE and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analyses provided supporting evidence that representatives were correctly grouped. Cluster analysis results demonstrated that the RAPD profiles of the metal tolerant P. lautus representatives were sufficiently dissimilar to discriminate between individuals from the spatially separated sites. The spatially separated sites also represented sites with high and low heavy metal concentrations. Observed genetic variability was thus also associated with varying levels of heavy metals. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the potential of using RAPD analysis as biomarkers for genotoxic effects of heavy metals on bacterial genomes. / Masters / Thesis (M.Sc. (Microbiology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.