abstract: The open nature of the wireless communication medium makes it inherently vulnerable to an active attack, wherein a malicious adversary (or jammer) transmits into the medium to disrupt the operation of the legitimate users. Therefore, developing techniques to manage the presence of a jammer and to characterize the effect of an attacker on the fundamental limits of wireless communication networks is important. This dissertation studies various Gaussian communication networks in the presence of such an adversarial jammer. First of all, a standard Gaussian channel is considered in the presence of a jammer, known as a Gaussian arbitrarily-varying channel, but with list-decoding at the receiver. The receiver decodes a list of messages, instead of only one message, with the goal of the correct message being an element of the list. The capacity is characterized, and it is shown that under some transmitter's power constraints the adversary is able to suspend the communication between the legitimate users and make the capacity zero. Next, generalized packing lemmas are introduced for Gaussian adversarial channels to achieve the capacity bounds for three Gaussian multi-user channels in the presence of adversarial jammers. Inner and outer bounds on the capacity regions of Gaussian multiple-access channels, Gaussian broadcast channels, and Gaussian interference channels are derived in the presence of malicious jammers. For the Gaussian multiple-access channels with jammer, the capacity bounds coincide. In this dissertation, the adversaries can send any arbitrary signals to the channel while none of the transmitter and the receiver knows the adversarial signals' distribution. Finally, the capacity of the standard point-to-point Gaussian fading channel in the presence of one jammer is investigated under multiple scenarios of channel state information availability, which is the knowledge of exact fading coefficients. The channel state information is always partially or fully known at the receiver to decode the message while the transmitter or the adversary may or may not have access to this information. Here, the adversary model is the same as the previous cases with no knowledge about the user's transmitted signal except possibly the knowledge of the fading path. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2019

Killing in role-playing video games is often a prominent feature. Most of the times, the characters killed are nameless criminals or minions of the true antagonist and if the game wants the player to kill, the player will most probably kill. This research was conducted to see how a dynamic narrative could affect a player’s choice of whether or not to kill expendable adversaries when a choice was provided. Participants played an interactive narrative in two different versions, followed by interviews, to see how narrative consequences and mechanisms for moral disengagement affected the players’ choices. The results showed that the choice of whether or not to kill could be affected if the narrative is dynamic and the non-playable characters reflect upon the choices made. Future studies should be conducted to see how graphics and sound affect the choices, and to see if it might be the mere choice in itself that affects the players the most.

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing film franchise that nurtures superhero stories within their narratives. However, in recent years the franchise has undergone a substantial shift in its adversary portrayal, with introducing Russian characters. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to expand the knowledge on the construction and development of Russian enemy images within the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, by focusing on three key movies: Iron Man 2 (2010), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Black Widow (2021). The research utilizes a diachronic case-oriented comparative design, wherein the selected movies are analyzed through a unique analytical framework, which consists of semiotic analysis and enemy images as theory. The study’s results demonstrate that the construction of enemy images in each movie resembles an ideal type and remained somewhat similar in terms of the demarcation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and the characterization of ‘their’ essence throughout the years. However, the study’s findings indicate two developmental shifts: first, in ‘our’ character, where similarities are observed with ‘their’ violent behavior, and second with expanding ‘their’ threat from solely physical to psychological aspects as well.

This study deals with various aspects of the life of Henrique Galvão (1895-1970) but principally with the seizure of the liner Santa Maria (1961) in opposition to the regime of Dr Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970). It describes the ship’s hijacking and explores its ramifications within the context of the 1961 Angolan nationalist uprising, Portuguese internal politics and Luso-American relations. A brief discussion of Portuguese history from 1910 to 1933 provides the background to Galvão’s affiliation to Salazar’s regime and his subsequent apostasy. The most salient features of Galvão’s dissidence are discussed: his report on conditions in Portuguese Africa (1947-49); involvement in opposition politics (1951-59); the hijacking of an air liner for propaganda purposes (1961) and appearance before the United Nations (1963). These events are connected to the themes of colonial administration, anti-colonialism, African nationalism, anti-Salazarist politics and the African policy of the United States (1961-63).

This study deals with various aspects of the life of Henrique Galvão (1895-1970) but principally with the seizure of the liner Santa Maria (1961) in opposition to the regime of Dr Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970). It describes the ship’s hijacking and explores its ramifications within the context of the 1961 Angolan nationalist uprising, Portuguese internal politics and Luso-American relations. A brief discussion of Portuguese history from 1910 to 1933 provides the background to Galvão’s affiliation to Salazar’s regime and his subsequent apostasy. The most salient features of Galvão’s dissidence are discussed: his report on conditions in Portuguese Africa (1947-49); involvement in opposition politics (1951-59); the hijacking of an air liner for propaganda purposes (1961) and appearance before the United Nations (1963). These events are connected to the themes of colonial administration, anti-colonialism, African nationalism, anti-Salazarist politics and the African policy of the United States (1961-63).