Novel Turbo Equalization Methods for the Magnetic Recording Channel Elizabeth Chesnutt 95 Pages Directed by Dr. John R. Barry The topic of this dissertation is the derivation, development, and evaluation of novel turbo equalization techniques that address the colored noise problem on the magnetic recording channel. One new algorithm presented is the noise-predictive BCJR, which is a soft-output detection strategy that mitigates colored noise in partial-response equalized magnetic recording channels. This algorithm can be viewed as a combination of the traditional BCJR algorithm with the notion of survivors and noise prediction. Additionally, an alternative equalization architecture for magnetic recording is presented that addresses the shortcomings of the PRML approach, which dominates magnetic recording. Specifically, trellis-based equalizers are abandoned in favor of simple equalization strategies based on nonlinear filters whose complexity grows only linearly with their length. This research focuses on the linear-complexity SFE algorithm and on investigating the possibility of lowering the SFE filter calculation complexity. The results indicate that with using the proposed novel SFE method, it is possible to increase the information density on magnetic media without raising the complexity. The most important result presented is that partial-response equalization needs to be reconsidered because of the amount of noise enhancement problems that it adds to the overall system. These results are important for the magnetic recording industry, which is trying to attain a 1 Tb/cm2 information storage goal.

In today¡¦s world, most nations seek for not only maximizing military and economic power, but also using their influence of soft power to other countries. Cultural diplomacy is the tool to help a country establish and spread its ¡§soft power¡¨; cultural diplomacy has become an essential option when the country develops its external relations. This article intends to realize the importance and method of the cultural diplomacy, and the utilities of the cultural diplomacy. Except America, China and the EU are absolutely the two great powers in the world. From culture diplomacy¡¦s perspective, this article examines what kind of the role that culture can play between China and the EU. According to the different self-identity, China will take different external actions. Emphasizing cultural diplomacy helps China defuse fears of ¡§the Rise of China¡¨ from the outside world. On the other side, culture is the key factor to help Europe retaining its advantage and conducting new ¡§Europe identity¡¨ at the same time. It¡¦s true that China and the EU do exist potential conflicts, but it is also difficult to deny the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy. Cultural diplomacy doesn¡¦t create ¡§zero-conflict¡¨ status, it also fairly concentrates on the way and attitude to solve problem. Even though China and EU contend for some issues, cultural diplomacy will continue to provide its function.

In order to search for bioactive compounds, we have studied the chemical constituents from the organic extracts of five soft corals including Sinularia lochmodes, Sinularia nanolobata, Sinularia grandilobata, Sinularia depressa and Lobophytum crassum. This study had led to the isolation of eighteen natural compounds 1¡Ð18, including seven new compounds, lochmolins A ¡Ð G (1 ¡Ð 7) from S. lochmodes, a new compound nanolobatolide (8) featuring with a new carbon skeleton from S. nanolobata, two new compounds grandilobatin G (9) and sinugrandisterol E (10) from S. grandilobata, a new compound depressoloide A (11) and a known compound sarcophytol L (12) from S.depressa, and three new compounds crassumolides G¡ÐI (13¡Ð15) along with three known compounds durmolides B and C (16 and 17) and sinularolide C (18) from L. crassum. The structures of compounds 1¡Ð18 were established by detailed spectral data analysis (IR, MS, 1D & 2D NMR) and by comparison with the spectral data of the related known compounds. The relative stereochemistries of compound 8 was further confirmed by X-ray single-crystal diffraction analysis. Among them, compounds 13¡Ð15 and 16¡Ð17 were found to show significant activity against the accumulation of the pro-inflammatory iNOS and COX-2 proteins at 10 £gM.

Investigation on the chemical constituents of the Formosan soft coral Sinularia gibberosa, collected by hand using scuba off the coast of Kenting, had led to the isolation of seven new cembranoids , gibberorenes A-G¡]2-8¡^, three new sterols, gibberoketosterol B¡]10¡^, gibberoepoxysterol¡]11¡^, gibberoketosterol C ¡]12¡^ along with two known compounds, (1Z,3E,7E,11S,12S,14S)-11,12-epoxycembra-1,3,7 -trien-14-ol¡]1¡^and gibberoketosterol¡]9¡^. The structures of 1-12 were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including IR, MS, 1D, and 2D NMR. Cytotoxicities of 1-12 against a limited panel of cancer cell lines were also evaluated. Among these metablites, compounds 9 and 11 were found to exhibit moderate cytotoxicity toward MCF-7, A549, MDA-MB-231, and HepG2 tumor cells. The ability of 9 and 10 to inhibit the pro-inflammatory iNOS and COX-2 expression of LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophage cells has been also estimated.

The chemical constituents of organic extracts of two Formosan soft corals Sinularia leptoclados and Sinularia nanolobata were studied. Investigation on S. leptoclados has led to the isolation of eight norditerpenes (1-8), including four new compounds, scabrolide A (1), leptolide A (2), leptolide B (3), leptolide C (4) and four know compounds (5-8), (11, 12)-epileptolide (5), ineleganolide (6), (1R*,5R*,8R*,10S*,11S*)¡V11¡Vhydroxyl¡V1¡Visopropenyl¡V8¡Vmethyl¡V3,6¡Vdioxo¡V5,8¡Vepoxycyclotetradec¡V12¡Vene¡V10,12¡Vcarbolactone (7) and (1R*,5R*,8R*,10S*,11R*)¡V11¡Vhydroxyl¡V1¡Visopropenyl¡V8¡Vmethyl¡V3,6¡Vdioxo¡V5,8¡Vepoxycyclotetradec¡V12¡Vene¡V10,12¡Vcarbolactone (8). Also, investigation on the chemical constituents of S. nanolobata has led to the isolation of two new compounds (9-10), nanolobatallin A (9) and nanolobatallin B (10). The structures of the new metabolites were determined on the basis of spectroscopic analyses, including MS, IR, 1D and 2D NMR. The cytotoxicities of the isolates against the NUGC, HONE-1, KB and Hepa59T/VGH cancer cell lines were studies. Compounds 7, 8 and 10 showed moderate cytotoxicity against KB and Hepa59T/VGH cancer cell lines. Compound 9 exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against Hepa59T/VGH cancer cells.

In this thesis we develop a 3D soft object modeling system with implicit functions. Our system provides implicit functions including the primitive functions and blending functions to modeling soft object. The system satisfies some requirements, such as intuitive operating environment, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) system architecture, and extensibility, etc. The system consists of four major parts: (1) the graphical user interface (GUI); (2) the constructive tree viewing Subsystem; (3) the implicit function operating Subsystem; (4) the 3D scene graph rendering Subsystem. The GUI initializes the window frame and responds to the event messages dispatched from the OS or applications. The constructive tree viewing Subsystem presents the composition of the object modal with the tree structure. The implicit function operating system accomplishes the polygon tessellation, that is, it translates the blending tree with the implicit functions to polygon meshes. The 3D scene graph rendering system renders the polygon mesh and provides 3D scene graph manipulations.

In chemical processes, online measurements of all the process variables and parameters required for process control, monitoring and optimization are seldom available. The use of soft sensors or observers is, therefore, highly significant as they can estimate unmeasured state variables from available process measurements. However, for reliable estimation by a soft sensor, the process measurements have to be placed at locations that allow reconstruction of process variables by the soft sensors. This dissertation presents a new technique for computing an optimal measurement structure for state and parameter estimation of stable nonlinear systems. The methodology can compute locations for individual sensors as well as networks of sensors where a trade-off between process information, sensor cost, and information redundancy is taken into account. The novel features of the approach are (1) that the nonlinear behavior that a process can exhibit over its operating region can be taken into account, (2) that the technique is applicable for systems described by lumped or by distributed parameter models, (3) that the technique reduces to already established methods, if the system is linear and only some of the objectives are examined, (4) that the results obtained from the procedure can be easily interpreted, and (5) that the resulting optimization problem can be decomposed, resulting in a significant reduction of the computational effort required for its solution. The other issue addressed in this dissertation is designing soft sensors for a given measurement structure. In case of high-dimensional systems, the application of conventional soft sensor or observer designs may not always be practical due to the high computational requirements or the resulting observers being too sensitive to measurement noise. To address these issues, this dissertation presents reduced-order observer design techniques for state estimation of high-dimensional chemical processes. The motivation behind these approaches is that subspaces, which are close to being unobservable, cannot be correctly reconstructed in a realistic setting due to measurement noise and inaccuracies in the model. The presented approaches make use of this observation and reconstruct the parts of the system where accurate state estimation is possible.

<p><p>I denna uppsats behandlas vetenskapliga kategoriseringar av nyheter, närmare bestämt de två kategorierna hard news och soft news. Utifrån tre akademiska texter presenteras definieringar, värderingar och betänkanden som författarna till dessa texter gjort. Utgångspunkten för problematiseringen av nyhetskategoriseringarna har varit att belysa saken från ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv. Ett försök till detta har gjorts med dels en relativt allmän genomgång av socialkonstruktionismens grundprinciper, formulerade av Marianne Winther Jørgensen & Louise Philips, och dels med en fördjupning i den socialkonstruktionistiska grenen diskursteori såsom den formuleras av Michel Foucault. Utifrån detta görs en analys av de tre texterna utifrån hur de används för att etablera tolkningsföreträden och rättfärdiga de olika definieringarna, värderingarna och betänkandena som författarna lägger fram. Avslutningsvis förs en diskussion om det forskningsmässiga läget beträffande hard news och soft news.</p></p> / -

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 47-02, page: 0949. Adviser: Tommy Douglas. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Science, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-49).