From fourteenth century medieval literature to contemporary American and African American literature, researchers have singled out and analyzed writing from every genre that is prophetic in nature, predicting or warning about events, both revolutionary and dire, to come. One twentieth-century American whose work embodies the essence of warning and foretelling through history-laden literature is Toni Morrison. This modern-day literary prophet reinterprets eras gone by through what she calls “re-memory” in order to guide her readers, and her society, to a greater understanding of the consequences of slavery and racism in America and to prompt both races to escape the pernicious effects of this heritage. Several critics have recognized and written about Morrison’s unique style of prophetic prose. These critics, however, have either taken a general cursory analysis of her complete body of works or they are only focused on one of her texts as a site of evidence. Despite the many critical essays and journal articles that have been written about Morrison as literary prophet, no critic has extensively investigated Morrison’s major works by way of textual analysis under this subject, to discuss Morrison prophetic prose, her motivation for engaging in a form of prophetic writing, and the context of this writing in a wider general, as well as an African-American, tradition. This dissertation takes on a more comprehensive, cross-sectional analysis of her works that has been previously employed, concentrating on five of Morrison’s major novels: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise, in an order to assess how Morrison develops and infuses warnings and admonitions of biblical proportions. This investigation seeks to reveal Morrison’s motivation to prophecy to Americans, black and white, the context in which she engages with her historical and contemporary subjects, and the nature of the admonitions to present and future action she offers to what she sees as a contemporary generation of socially and historically oblivious African Americans, using literary prophecy as the tool by which to accomplish her objectives. This dissertation also demonstrates—by way of textual analysis and literary theory—the evolution through five novels of Morrison’s development as a literary prophet.

This thesis investigates channel-coded physical layer network coding, in which the relay directly transforms the noisy superimposed channel-coded packets received from the two end nodes, to the network-coded combination of the source packets. This is in contrast to the traditional multiple-access problem, in which the goal is to obtain each message explicitly at the relay. Here, the end nodes $A$ and $B$ choose their symbols, $S_A$ and $S_B$, from a small non-binary field, $\mathbb{F}$, and use non-binary PSK constellation mapper during the transmission phase. The relay then directly decodes the network-coded combination ${aS_A+bS_B}$ over $\mathbb{F}$ from the noisy superimposed channel-coded packets received from two end nodes. Trying to obtain $S_A$ and $S_B$ explicitly at the relay is overly ambitious when the relay only needs $aS_B+bS_B$. For the binary case, the only possible network-coded combination, ${S_A+S_B}$ over the binary field, does not offer the best performance in several channel conditions. The advantage of working over non-binary fields is that it offers the opportunity to decode according to multiple decoding coefficients $(a,b)$. As only one of the network-coded combinations needs to be successfully decoded, a key advantage is then a reduction in error probability by attempting to decode against all choices of decoding coefficients. In this thesis, we compare different constellation mappers and prove that not all of them have distinct performance in terms of frame error rate. Moreover, we derive a lower bound on the frame error rate performance of decoding the network-coded combinations at the relay. Simulation results show that if we adopt concatenated Reed-Solomon and convolutional coding or low density parity check codes at the two end nodes, our non-binary constellations can outperform the binary case significantly in the sense of minimizing the frame error rate and, in particular, the ternary constellation has the best frame error rate performance among all considered cases.

This dissertation considers several coding techniques based on Reed-Solomon (RS) and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. These two prominent families of error-correcting codes have attracted a great amount of interest from both theorists and practitioners and have been applied in many communication scenarios. In particular, data storage systems have greatly benefited from these codes in improving the reliability of the storage media. The first part of this dissertation presents a unified framework based on rate-distortion (RD) theory to analyze and optimize multiple decoding trials of RS codes. Finding the best set of candidate decoding patterns is shown to be equivalent to a covering problem which can be solved asymptotically by RD theory. The proposed approach helps understand the asymptotic performance-versus-complexity trade-off of these multiple-attempt decoding algorithms and can be applied to a wide range of decoders and error models. In the second part, we consider spatially-coupled (SC) codes, or terminated LDPC convolutional codes, over intersymbol-interference (ISI) channels under joint iterative decoding. We empirically observe the phenomenon of threshold saturation whereby the belief-propagation (BP) threshold of the SC ensemble is improved to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) threshold of the underlying ensemble. More specifically, we derive a generalized extrinsic information transfer (GEXIT) curve for the joint decoder that naturally obeys the area theorem and estimate the MAP and BP thresholds. We also conjecture that SC codes due to threshold saturation can universally approach the symmetric information rate of ISI channels. In the third part, a similar analysis is used to analyze the MAP thresholds of LDPC codes for several multiuser systems, namely a noisy Slepian-Wolf problem and a multiple access channel with erasures. We provide rigorous analysis and derive upper bounds on the MAP thresholds which are shown to be tight in some cases. This analysis is a first step towards proving threshold saturation for these systems which would imply SC codes with joint BP decoding can universally approach the entire capacity region of the corresponding systems.

Probabilistic simultaneous polynomial reconstruction algorithm of Bleichenbacher-Kiayias-Yung is extended to the polynomials whose degrees are allowed to be distinct. Furthermore, it is observed that probability of the algorithm can be increased. Specifically, for a finite field $F$, we present a probabilistic algorithm which can recover polynomials $p_1,ldots, p_r in F[x]$ of degree less than $k_1,k_2,ldots,k_r$, respectively with given field evaluations $p_l(z_i) = y_{i,l}$ for all $i in I$, $|I|=t$ and $l in [r]$ with probability at least $1 - (n - t)/|F|$ and with time complexity at most $O((nr)^3)$. Next, by using this algorithm, we present a probabilistic decoder for interleaved Reed-Solomon codes. It is observed that interleaved Reed-Solomon codes over $F$ with rate $R$ can be decoded up to burst error rate $frac{r}{r+1}(1 - R)$ probabilistically for an interleaving parameter $r$. It is proved that a Reed-Solomon code RS$(n / k)$ can be decoded up to error rate $frac{r}{r+1}(1 - R&#039 / )$ for $R&#039 / = frac{(k-1)(r+1)+2}{2n}$ when probabilistic interleaved Reed-Solomon decoders are applied. Similarly, for a finite field $F_{q^2}$, it is proved that $q$-folded Hermitian codes over $F_{q^{2q}}$ with rate $R$ can be decoded up to error rate $frac{q}{q+1}(1 - R)$ probabilistically. On the other hand, it is observed that interleaved codes whose subcodes would have different minimum distances can be list decodable up to radius of minimum of list decoding radiuses of subcodes. Specifically, we present a list decoding algorithm for $C$, which is interleaving of $C_1,ldots, C_b$ whose minimum distances would be different, decoding up to radius of minimum of list decoding radiuses of $C_1,ldots, C_b$ with list size polynomial in the maximum of list sizes of $C_1,ldots, C_b$ and with time complexity polynomial in list size of $C$ and $b$. Next, by using this list decoding algorithm for interleaved codes, we obtained new list decoding algorithm for $qh$-folded Hermitian codes for $q$ standing for field size the code defined and $h$ is any positive integer. The decoding algorithm list decodes $qh$-folded Hermitian codes for radius that is generally better than radius of Guruswami-Sudan algorithm, with time complexity and list size polynomial in list size of $h$-folded Reed-Solomon codes defined over $F_{q^2}$.

The TSol is a Christian composition of late antiquity which narrates the story about how King Solomon built the Temple of God with the aid of demons he subjugated. Comparative analysis between the TSol and Jewish literature of late antiquity (between the closing centuries BCE and the Talmudic era), and the New Testament is primarily to establish any literary dependence and explore the nature of contact between the TSol and these materials; and also to isolate Jewish elements in the TSol. The Jewish materials discussed are the Hebrew Bible, the LXX, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Pseudo-Philo, certain Qumran documents (11 PsApa and the Copper scroll), Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs, rabbinic literature, and certain Aramaic incantation texts. My research has shown that parallels do exist between the TSol, the Jewish literature discussed and the New Testament. The parallels between the TSol and the aforementioned literature are twofold: verbal and conceptual. Verbal parallels occur in the form of technical terminology; quotations, allusions and echoes. The second type of parallels appears in the form of motifs, themes, structural elements and ideas. These parallels seem to dominate in my analysis. There is no need to explain the parallels between the TSol and the literature discussed in terms of literary dependence. I have attempted to demonstrate that these parallels in most of the literature are indicative of indirect influence through shared use of the biblical tradition: motifs, stories and themes regarding King Solomon; a common fund of oral tradition(s) regarding Solomon's magical power over demonic world; shared literary language, milieu, and cultural conventions. Moreover, the author of the TSol seems to have recycled Jewish materials pertaining to Solomon and related motifs in his work. Apart from the New Testament, the best case for a direct influence of a Jewish work on the TSol is Tobit.

Deux défis de la théorie du codage algébrique sont traités dans cette thèse. Le premier est le décodage efficace (dur et souple) de codes de Reed--Solomon généralisés sur les corps finis en métrique de Hamming. La motivation pour résoudre ce problème vieux de plus de 50 ans a été renouvelée par la découverte par Guruswami et Sudan à la fin du 20ème siècle d'un algorithme polynomial de décodage jusqu'au rayon Johnson basé sur l'interpolation. Les premières méthodes de décodage algébrique des codes de Reed--Solomon généralisés faisaient appel à une équation clé, c'est à dire, une description polynomiale du problème de décodage. La reformulation de l'approche à base d'interpolation en termes d'équations clés est un thème central de cette thèse. Cette contribution couvre plusieurs aspects des équations clés pour le décodage dur ainsi que pour la variante décodage souple de l'algorithme de Guruswami--Sudan pour les codes de Reed--Solomon généralisés. Pour toutes ces variantes un algorithme de décodage efficace est proposé. Le deuxième sujet de cette thèse est la formulation et le décodage jusqu'à certaines bornes inférieures sur leur distance minimale de codes en blocs linéaires cycliques. La caractéristique principale est l'intégration d'un code cyclique donné dans un code cyclique produit (généralisé). Nous donnons donc une description détaillée du code produit cyclique et des codes cycliques produits généralisés. Nous prouvons plusieurs bornes inférieures sur la distance minimale de codes cycliques linéaires qui permettent d'améliorer ou de généraliser des bornes connues. De plus, nous donnons des algorithmes de décodage d'erreurs/d'effacements [jusqu'à ces bornes] en temps quadratique.

This thesis is a consideration of the intertextual relationship between William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. It considers the objectification and destruction of women and female-coded men in the service of the male protagonist's journey to selfhood, with particular focus on the construction of race, gender, and class performances.

This thesis investigates channel-coded physical layer network coding, in which the relay directly transforms the noisy superimposed channel-coded packets received from the two end nodes, to the network-coded combination of the source packets. This is in contrast to the traditional multiple-access problem, in which the goal is to obtain each message explicitly at the relay. Here, the end nodes $A$ and $B$ choose their symbols, $S_A$ and $S_B$, from a small non-binary field, $\mathbb{F}$, and use non-binary PSK constellation mapper during the transmission phase. The relay then directly decodes the network-coded combination ${aS_A+bS_B}$ over $\mathbb{F}$ from the noisy superimposed channel-coded packets received from two end nodes. Trying to obtain $S_A$ and $S_B$ explicitly at the relay is overly ambitious when the relay only needs $aS_B+bS_B$. For the binary case, the only possible network-coded combination, ${S_A+S_B}$ over the binary field, does not offer the best performance in several channel conditions. The advantage of working over non-binary fields is that it offers the opportunity to decode according to multiple decoding coefficients $(a,b)$. As only one of the network-coded combinations needs to be successfully decoded, a key advantage is then a reduction in error probability by attempting to decode against all choices of decoding coefficients. In this thesis, we compare different constellation mappers and prove that not all of them have distinct performance in terms of frame error rate. Moreover, we derive a lower bound on the frame error rate performance of decoding the network-coded combinations at the relay. Simulation results show that if we adopt concatenated Reed-Solomon and convolutional coding or low density parity check codes at the two end nodes, our non-binary constellations can outperform the binary case significantly in the sense of minimizing the frame error rate and, in particular, the ternary constellation has the best frame error rate performance among all considered cases.

The diploma thesis Anthology of Unspoken is a form of personal therapy, a coping mechanism in the shape of an extensive personal research presented by visually eclectic web, which maps the perception of depression and melancholy in terms of historical, artistic, and partly academic discourse. AoU takes the form of a website on the border of an archive and a research blog, which visually reminds a notebook with the use of texts in the form of notes, reader view essays, and accompanying visual material (period paintings, pop-cultural references, emoticons etc.). This diploma thesis has two main goals. Firstly, it represents a way of finding means to articulate and at least fractionally understand my own problems. Secondly, it is a way of finding answers to the following questions: Is depression really a modern matter of the 21st century? Why is it so difficult to talk about it? Where do the shame and feeling of guilt, with which it is inextricably associated with, come from? Is melancholy synonymous with depression, or do these terms differ from each other? And is depression really a disease or is it only a sign of my own failure?

This Master´s thesis discuses the protection of data transmission against long error bursts. The data is transmited throught the channel with defined error rate. Parameters of the channel are error-free interval 2000 bits and length of burst error 250 bits. One of the aims of this work is to make a set of possible methods for the realization of a system for data correction. The basic selection is made from most known codes. These codes are divided into several categories and then the best one is chosen for higher selection. Of course interleaving is used too. Only one code from each category can pass on to the higher level of the best code selection. At the end the codes are compared and the best three are simulated using the Matlab program to check correct function. From these three options, one is chosen as optimal regarding practical realization. Two options exist, hardware or software realization. The second one would seem more useful. The real codec is created in validator language C. Nowadays, considering language C and from a computer architecture point of view the 8 bits size of element unit is convenient. That´s why the code RS(255, 191), which works with 8 bits symbols, is optimal. In the next step the codec of this code is created containing the coder and decoder of the code above. The simulation of error channel is ensured by last program. Finally the results are presented using several examples.