This paper describes an analog-to-digital signal converter which varies its precision as a function of input slew rate (maximum signal rate of change), in order to best follow the input in real time. It uses Flash and Successive Approximation (SAR) conversion techniques in sequence. As part of the design, the concept of "total real-time optimization" is explored, where any delay at all is treated as an error (Error = Delay * Signal Slew Rate). This error metric is proposed for use in digital control systems. The ADC uses a 4-bit Flash converter in tandem with SAR logic that has variable precision (0 to 11 bits). This allows the Tandem ADC to switch from a fast, imprecise converter to a slow, precise converter. The level of precision is determined by the input’s peak rate of change, optimized for minimum real-time error; a secondary goal is to react quickly to input transient spikes. The implementation of the Tandem ADC is described, along with various issues which arise when designing such a converter and how they may be dealt with. These include Flash ADC inaccuracies, rounding issues, and system timing and synchronization. Most of the design is described down to the level of logic gates and related building blocks (e.g. latches and flip-flops), and various logic optimizations are used in the design to reduce calculation delays. The design also avoids active analog circuitry whenever possible – it can be almost entirely implemented with CMOS logic and passive analog components.

In the first part of this dissertation, a novel medium access protocol for the Internet of Thing (IoT) networks is introduced. The Internet of things (IoT), which is the network of physical devices embedded with sensors, actuators, and connectivity, is being accelerated into the mainstream by the emergence of 5G wireless networking. This work presents an uncoordinated non-orthogonal random-access protocol, which is an enhancement to the recently introduced slotted ALOHA- NOMA (SAN) protocol that provides high throughput, while being matched to the low complexity requirements and the sporadic traffic pattern of IoT devices. Under ideal conditions it has been shown that slotted ALOHA-NOMA (SAN), using power- domain orthogonality, can significantly increase the throughput using SIC (Successive Interference Cancellation) to enable correct reception of multiple simultaneous transmitted signals. For this ideal performance, the enhanced SAN receiver adaptively learns the number of active devices (which is not known a priori) using a form of multi-hypothesis testing. For small numbers of simultaneous transmissions, it is shown that there can be substantial throughput gain of 5.5 dB relative to slotted ALOHA (SA) for 0.07 probability of transmission and up to 3 active transmitters. As a further enhancement to SAN protocol, the SAN with beamforming (BF-SAN) protocol was proposed. The BF-SAN protocol uses beamforming to significantly improve the throughput to 1.31 compared with 0.36 in conventional slotted ALOHA when 6 active IoT devices can be successfully separated using 2×2 MIMO and a SIC (Successive Interference Cancellation) receiver with 3 optimum power levels. The simulation results further show that the proposed protocol achieves higher throughput than SAN with a lower average channel access delay. In the second part of this dissertation a novel Machine Learning (ML) approach was applied for proactive mobility management in 5G Virtual Cell (VC) wireless networks. Providing seamless mobility and a uniform user experience, independent of location, is an important challenge for 5G wireless networks. The combination of Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) networks and Virtual- Cells (VCs) are expected to play an important role in achieving high throughput independent of the mobile’s location by mitigating inter-cell interference and enhancing the cell-edge user throughput. User- specific VCs will distinguish the physical cell from a broader area where the user can roam without the need for handoff, and may communicate with any Base Station (BS) in the VC area. However, this requires rapid decision making for the formation of VCs. In this work, a novel algorithm based on a form of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) called Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) is used for predicting the triggering condition for forming VCs via enabling Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission. Simulation results show that based on the sequences of Received Signal Strength (RSS) values of different mobile nodes used for training the RNN, the future RSS values from the closest three BSs can be accurately predicted using GRU, which is then used for making proactive decisions on enabling CoMP transmission and forming VCs. Finally, the work in the last part of this dissertation was directed towards applying Bayesian games for cell selection / user association in 5G Heterogenous networks to achieve the 5G goal of low latency communication. Expanding the cellular ecosystem to support an immense number of connected devices and creating a platform that accommodates a wide range of emerging services of different traffic types and Quality of Service (QoS) metrics are among the 5G’s headline features. One of the key 5G performance metrics is ultra-low latency to enable new delay-sensitive use cases. Some network architectural amendments are proposed to achieve the 5G ultra-low latency objective. With these paradigm shifts in system architecture, it is of cardinal importance to rethink the cell selection / user association process to achieve substantial improvement in system performance over conventional maximum signal-to- interference plus noise ratio (Max-SINR) and Cell Range Expansion (CRE) algorithms employed in Long Term Evolution- Advanced (LTE- Advanced). In this work, a novel Bayesian cell selection / user association algorithm, incorporating the access nodes capabilities and the user equipment (UE) traffic type, is proposed in order to maximize the probability of proper association and consequently enhance the system performance in terms of achieved latency. Simulation results show that Bayesian game approach attains the 5G low end-to-end latency target with a probability exceeding 80%.

We examine steady transonic flows of Bethe-Zel\'dovich-Thompson (BZT) fluids over thin turbine blades or airfoils. BZT fluids are ordinary fluids having a region of negative fundamental derivative over a finite range of pressures and temperatures in the single phase regime. We derive the transonic small disturbance equation (TSDE) capable of capturing the qualitative behavior of BZT fluids. The shock jump conditions, and shock existence conditions consistent with the derived TSDE are presented. The flux function is seen to be quartic in the pressure or density perturbation rather than the quadratic (convex) flux function of the perfect gas theory. We show how this nonconvex flux function can be used to predict and explain the complex flows possible in transonic BZT fluids. Numerical solutions using a successive line relaxation (SLR) scheme are presented. New results of interest include shock-splitting, collisions between expansion and compression shocks, the prediction and observation of two compressive bow shocks in supersonic flows, and the observation of as many as three normal stern shocks following an oblique trailing edge shock. / Master of Science

No description available.

Interference limits the throughput of modern wireless communication networks, and thus the successful mitigation of interference can have a significant impact on network performance. Successive interference cancellation (SIC) has emerged as a promising physical layer method, where multiple packets received simultaneously need not be treated as a ``collision'' requiring retransmission; rather, under certain conditions, all of the packets can be decoded. Obviously, using SIC can thus serve as an important design element that can provide higher performance for the network. However, it also requires a rethinking of the way that traditional routing and scheduling algorithms, which are designed for a traditional physical layer, are developed. In order to consider routing and scheduling over a physical layer employing SIC, some tools such as the oft-employed conflict graph need to be modified. In particular, a notion of links interfering with other links ``indirectly'' is required, and this issue has been ignored in many past works. Therefore, considering the dependencies and interferences between links, a joint routing and scheduling algorithm that employs an understanding of the SIC that will be employed at the physical layer is presented and shown to surpass previous algorithms. We know that the maximum throughput scheduling problem is NP-hard. On the other hand, even if we can reach maximum throughput scheduling, while being throughput efficient, it can result in highly unfair rates among the users. Hence, proportional fairness is developed in the proposed algorithm.

I fastighetsbildningslagens tredje kapitel hittas de allmänna villkoren som måste vara uppfyllda vid en fastighetsbildning. 3 kap. 9 § FBL är en undantagsregel som gör det möjligt att utföra en fastighetsbildning även om villkoren i 3 kap. 1 eller 5 §§ FBL inte är uppfyllda. Regeln kallas även för successiv fastighetsbildning. Trots att lagtexten behandlar regeln och Lantmäterimyndigheten har upprättat en handbok för FBL, lämnas utrymme för egna tolkningar när tillämpning får ske. Rapporten syftar till att tydliggöra innebörden av successiv fastighetsbildning samt ta fram riktlinjer för vid vilka åtgärder det kan tillämpas. Rapporten undersöker inte successiv fastighetsbildning för skogs- och jordbruksfastigheter. Utifrån syftet togs fem frågeställningar fram. En fråga avser att tydliggöra uttrycket successiv fastighetsbildning, en annan fråga syftar till att ta fram de åtgärder som successiv fastighetsbildning kan tillämpas på. Genom en rättsfallsanalys, fallstudier, en intervju samt litteratur- och propositionsstudier kunde ett resultat antas. Däribland framkom det att ingen tydlig bild av successiv fastighetsbildning finns. Litteraturstudien gav en förståelse om att successiv fastighetsbildning är ett annat ord för 3 kap. 9 § FBL som gör det möjligt att, i vissa fall, frångå villkoren i 3 kap. 1 eller 5 §§ FBL. Rättsfallsanalysen och fallstudierna gjorde det möjligt att ta fram riktlinjer för vid vilka åtgärder successiv fastighetsbildning kan tillämpas på. Därefter kunde det konstateras att successiv fastighetsbildning går att tillämpa vid fastighetsbildning av befintliga fastigheter som inte uppfyller lämplighetsvillkoren i 3 kap. 1 § FBL, vid skapande av exploateringsfastigheter samt vid bildande av fastigheter inom ett utvecklingsområde. Resultatet presenteras slutligen i en slutsats där alla fem frågeställningar besvaras. / In the third chapter of the property formation act the general conditions concerning property formation is described. In Chapter 3, section 9 Real Property Formation Act, there is an excepting rule that makes it possible to perform a property formation even if the conditions in the real property formation act 3 chap. 1 or 5 §§ is not fulfilled. This rule is called Successive property formation. Although the legal text treats the rule and the cadastral authority have made a hand book for the Real Property Formation Act, there still is uncertainties about when it can be applied. The aim of this thesis is to clarify the meaning of successive property formation and to present guidelines for when it is possible to apply it. This thesis will not focus on successive property formation for forest and agriculture property. Based on the aim, five issues were made. One of the issues intends to clarify the term successive property formation, and another issue aims at identifying the actions that successive property formation can be applied to. Through a court cases analysis, case study, interview and literature and propositions study, a result could be assumed. Among other things, it emerged that no clear view of successive property formation existed. The literature study gave an understanding of that successive property formation is another word for the real property formation act 3 chap. 9 § that makes it possible to, in some cases, make an exception from the conditions in the real property formation 3 chap. 1 or 5 §§. The court case analysis and the case study made it possible to draw guidelines for actions where successive property formation can be applied. Thereafter it could be noted that successive property formation can be applied on existing properties which does not meet the suitability conditions in the real property formation act 3 chap. 1 §, for the creation of exploitation properties and for the formation of properties within a development area. Conclusively, the result is presented were all five issues are addressed.

No description available.

Decreasing gas prices and the pressing need for fast-responding electric power generators are currently transforming natural gas networks. The intermittent operation of gas-fired plants to balance wind generation introduces spatiotemporal fluctuations of increasing gas demand. At the heart of modeling, monitoring, and control of gas networks is a set of nonlinear equations relating nodal gas injections and pressures to flows over pipelines. Given gas demands at all points of the network, the gas flow task aims at finding the rest of the physical quantities. For a tree network, the problem enjoys a closed-form solution; yet solving the equations for practical meshed networks is non-trivial. This problem is posed here as a feasibility problem involving quadratic equalities and inequalities, and is further relaxed to a convex semidefinite program (SDP) minimization. Drawing parallels to the power flow problem, the relaxation is shown to be exact if the cost function is judiciously designed using a representative set of network states. Numerical tests on a Belgian gas network corroborate the superiority of the novel method in recovering the actual gas network state over a Newton-Raphson solver. This thesis also considers the coupled infrastructures of natural gas and electric power systems. The gas and electric networks are coupled through gas-fired generators, which serve as shoulder and peaking plants for the electric power system. The optimal dispatch of coupled natural gas and electric power systems is posed as a relaxed convex minimization problem, which is solved using the feasible point pursuit (FPP) algorithm. For a decentralized solution, the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is used in collaboration with the FPP. Numerical experiments conducted on a Belgian gas network connected to the IEEE 14 bus benchmark system corroborate significant enhancements on computational efficiency compared with the centralized FPP-based approach. / Master of Science

The Clinch and Powell Rivers located in Southwestern Virginia contain some of the most diverse freshwater mussel assemblages found throughout North America. However, in recent decades mussel species decline has been documented by researchers. The presence of coal mining activity in the watersheds has been hypothesized to be linked to the decline of numerous species and the extirpation of others. The effects of various discharges from an active coal preparation plant facility located in Honaker, Virginia were evaluated for acute and chronic toxicity using field and laboratory tests. The results of the study suggested that the primary effluent from the coal preparation facility had acute and chronic toxicity; however, the settling pond system utilized at this plant mitigated the impacts of the plant from reaching the Clinch River. Along with active mine discharges, acid mine drainage (AMD) has been documented as another potential stressor. Ecotoxicological recovery was evaluated in two acid mine drainage impacted subwatersheds (Black Creek and Ely Creek) in the Powell River watershed following remediation. The results in Ely Creek suggested that successive alkalinity producing systems were effective in mitigating the harmful impacts of AMD as previously impacted sites had decreased water column aluminum and iron levels in conjunction with increased survival in laboratory toxicity tests conducted with Ceriodaphnia dubia and Daphnia magna. Corbicula fluminea (Asian clam) in-situ tests confirmed the results in the laboratory tests as all sites located below the remediated areas had improved survival. However, active AMD influences and loss of quality habitat seemed to be hindering the recovery of the benthic macroinvertebrate community located in Ely Creek. In Black Creek, re-mining and outlet control pond construction have not resulted in a successful remediation in the lower subwatershed. A decrease in Ecotoxicological Ratings at some of the lowest mainstem sites compared to pre-remediation data was observed. Furthermore, decreased survival in sediment associated toxicity tests with D. magna in 2007-08 was supported by 100% Asian clam mortality at the LBC-5 and LBC-6 sites in 2007, while growth impairment in 2008 was observed at the LBC-6 site. / Master of Science

L’optimisation des communications par satellite devient un enjeu crucial pour fournir un accèsInternet aux zones blanches et/ou défavorisées et pour supporter des réseaux à grande échelle.Dans ce contexte, l’utilisation des techniques d’accès aléatoires sur le lien retour permetd’améliorer les performances de ces systèmes. Cependant, les techniques d’accès aléatoireclassiques comme ‘Aloha’ et ‘Slotted Aloha’ ne sont pas optimales pour la transmission dedonnées sur le lien retour. En effet, ces techniques présentent un taux élevé de pertes depaquets suite aux collisions. Par conséquent, des études récentes ont proposé de nouvellesméthodes d’accès aléatoire pour résoudre les collisions entre les paquets et ainsi, améliorerles performances. En particulier, ces méthodes se basent sur la redondance de l’informationet l’annulation successive des interférences. Dans ces systèmes, l’estimation de canal sur le lien retour est un problème difficile en raison du haut niveau de collisions de paquets. Dans une première contribution dans cette thèse, nous décrivons une technique améliorée d’estimation de canal pour les paquets en collision. Par ailleurs, nous analysons l’impact des erreurs résiduelles d’estimation de canal sur la performance des annulations successives des interférences. Même si les résultats obtenus sont encore légèrement inférieurs au cas de connaissance parfaite du canal, on observe une amélioration significative des performances par rapport aux algorithmes d’estimation de canal existants. Une autre contribution de cette thèse présente une méthode appelée ‘Multi-Replica Decoding using Correlation based Localisation’ (MARSALA). Celle-ci est une nouvelle technique de décodage pour la méthode d’accès aléatoire synchrone ‘Contention Résolution diversité Slotted Aloha’ (CRDSA), qui est basée sur les principe de réplication de paquets et d’annulation successive des interférences. Comparée aux méthodes d’accès aléatoire traditionnelles, CRDSA permet d’améliorer considérablement les performances. Toutefois, le débit offert par CRDSA peut être limité à cause des fortes collisions de paquets. L’utilisation deMARSALA par le récepteur permet d’améliorer les résultats en appliquant des techniques de corrélation temporelles pour localiser et combiner les répliques d’un paquet donné. Cette procédure aboutit à des gains en termes de débit et de taux d’erreurs paquets. Néanmoins, le gain offert par MARSALAest fortement dépendant de la synchronisation en temps et en phase des répliques d’un mêmepaquet. Dans cette thèse, nous détaillons le fonctionnement de MARSALA afin de corriger ladésynchronisation en temps et en phase entre les répliques. De plus, nous évaluons l’impactde la combinaison imparfaite des répliques sur les performances, en fournissant un modèle analytique ainsi que des résultats de simulation. En outre, plusieurs schémas d’optimisationde MARSALA sont proposés tels que le principe du ‘MaximumRatio Combining’, ou la transmissiondes paquets à des puissances différentes. Utilisées conjointement, ces différentespropositions permettent d’obtenir une amélioration très significative des performances. Enfin,nous montrons qu’en choisissant la configuration optimale pour MARSALA, le gain deperformance est considérablement amélioré. / With the need to provide the Internet access to deprived areas and to cope with constantlyenlarging satellite networks, enhancing satellite communications becomes a crucial challenge.In this context, the use of Random Access (RA) techniques combined with dedicated accesson the satellite return link, can improve the system performance. However conventionalRA techniques like Aloha and Slotted Aloha suffer from a high packet loss rate caused bydestructive packet collisions. For this reason, those techniques are not well-suited for datatransmission in satellite communications. Therefore, researchers have been studying andproposing new RA techniques that can cope with packet collisions and decrease the packet lossratio. In particular, recent RA techniques involving information redundancy and successiveinterference cancellation, have shown some promising performance gains.With such methods that can function in high load regimes and resolve packets with high collisions,channel estimation is not an evident task. As a first contribution in this dissertation, wedescribe an improved channel estimation scheme for packets in collision in new RAmethodsin satellite communications. And we analyse the impact of residual channel estimation errorson the performance of interference cancellation. The results obtained show a performancedegradation compared to the perfect channel knowledge case, but provide a performanceenhancement compared to existing channel estimation algorithms. Another contribution of this thesis is presenting a method called Multi-Replica Decoding using Correlation based Localisation (MARSALA). MARSALA is a new decoding technique for a recent synchronous RAmethod called Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA). Based on packets replication and successive interference cancellation, CRDSA enables to significantly enhance the performance of legacy RA techniques. However, if CRDSA is unable to resolve additional packets due to high levels of collision, MARSALA is applied. At the receiver side, MARSALA takes advantage of correlation procedures to localise the replicas of a given packet, then combines the replicas in order to obtain a better Signal to Noise plus Interference Ratio. Nevertheless, the performance ofMARSALA is highly dependent on replicas synchronisation in timing and phase, otherwise replicas combination would not be constructive. In this dissertation, we describe an overall framework ofMARSALA including replicas timing and phase estimation and compensation, then channel estimation for theresulting signal. This dissertation also provides an analytical model for the performancedegradation of MARSALA due to imperfect replicas combination and channel estimation.In addition, several enhancement schemes forMARSALA are proposed likeMaximum RatioCombining, packets power unbalance, and various coding schemes. Finally, we show thatby choosing the optimal design configuration for MARSALA, the performance gain can besignificantly enhanced.