A technique for wall compensation in the ultra-wideband (UWB) through-wall imaging radar is presented. The UWB system can be utilize in high precision measurements, but due to phase distortion and amplitude attenuation caused by the wall the precision is limited, the target is displaced, and the image is defocused.  In order to mitigate the wall effects, two methods are applied in this project. First, the unknown wall transfer function is estimated using real data measurements to design the inverse filter. Secondly, FIR Wiener filter is designed to improve the received m-sequence. After all, each method is tested using three parameters, the signal to noise ratio (SNR), the signal to clutter ratio (SCR), and the relative position error (RPE).  The inverse filter can eliminate the wall effects very well; it could correct not only the position of the target but also the image defocus. The new method can give improve the image quality and that can extend the use of UWB radar in many applications.

Pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum, have the potential to increase reproduction as a defence against pathogens, though how frequently this occurs or how infection with live pathogens influences this response is not well understood. Here we determine the minimum infective dose of an environmentally common bacterium and possible aphid pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae, to determine the likelihood of pathogenic effects to pea aphids. Additionally, we used P. syringae infection to investigate how live pathogens may alter reproductive rates. We found that oral bacterial exposure decreased subsequent survival of aphids in a dose-dependent manner and we estimate that ingestion of less than 10 bacterial cells is sufficient to increase aphid mortality. Pathogen dose was positively related to aphid reproduction. Aphids exposed to low bacterial doses showed decreased, although statistically indistinguishable, fecundity compared to controls. Aphids exposed to high doses reproduced significantly more than low dose treatments and also more, but not significantly so, than controls. These results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that pea aphids may use fecundity compensation as a response to pathogens. Consequently, even low levels of exposure to a common plant-associated bacterium may therefore have significant effects on pea aphid survival and reproduction.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Compressed video is necessary for a variety of telemetry requirements. A large number of competing video compression algorithms exist. This paper compares the ability of these algorithms to meet criteria which are of interest for telemetry applications. Included are: quality, compression, noise susceptibility, motion performance and latency. The algorithms are divided into those which employ inter-frame compression and those which employ intra-frame compression. A video tape presentation will also be presented to illustrate the performance of the video compression algorithms.

published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This professional report outlines and assesses of various advertising agency organization and compensation models. It provides an analysis of how the disruptive technology of the Internet has changed consumer media habits and caused a paradigm shift in the marketing communications landscape and how the current economic recession has affected agencies. The organization models addressed include the traditional silo model and the roster model. Compensation models include labor-based fee models, commission-based models, and several new models that the industry has recently embraced. / text

This dissertation examines how the structures of compensation for executives and directors are affected by the possibility that managers can influence the risk of a firm's cash flows. In chapter 1, I consider a moral hazard model which shows that a strong pay-for-performance sensitivity in managerial compensation may deteriorate shareholder value when shareholders cannot monitor managerial risk-seeking activities. Intuitively, while high-powered managerial compensation provides the manager with incentives to increase the firm's value by exerting effort, it also creates managerial incentive to engage in (unproductive) risk-seeking activities. To test this prediction, I consider a regulatory change that makes it more difficult for managers to conceal information about the (speculative) use of derivative instruments. Specifically, I examine how the structures of compensation for executives and managers are affected by the adoption of a new accounting standard, the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 133 Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities (FAS 133) which mandates the fair value accounting for derivative holdings. Consistent with the model prediction, I find that relative to other firms, derivative users (firms that traded derivatives before adopting FAS 133) increase the pay-for-performance sensitivity of CEO/CFO compensation. In Chapter 2, I extend the model by incorporating the realistic features that shareholders delegate to the (self-interested) board the tasks of monitoring managers and of setting their compensation contracts. My analysis shows that while high-powered board compensation induces the board to monitor the firm and to properly design managerial compensation, it also provides the board with incentives to misreport managerial risk-seeking activities and to engage in collusive behavior with the manager at the expense of shareholders. From these trade-offs, I develop a number of testable hypotheses and take them to the data. Consistent with the model predictions, I find that firms in which (i) managerial risk-seeking activities are more likely to occur (e.g., high R&D firms or banks) and (ii) board monitoring costs are likely to be lower (e.g., firms that have non-officer blockholders on the board) show weaker pay-for-performance sensitivity of board compensation and stronger pay-for-performance sensitivity of CEO compensation. / text

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the U.S. government has relied heavily on military contracting companies and their employees to carry out military missions in Middle East. Since 2001, high salaries and the call to serve the country have persuaded many people to take the risk of working in war zones. Yet the many individuals who have been injured while performing such duties now find themselves caught between their insurance companies and the U.S. Department of Labor, as they fight for the workers’ compensation and healthcare coverage they were promised. / text

水資源保護區與國土開發利用，都是國家重要政策，但兩者在本質上會有衝突，限制水資源保護區的土地開發利用，對受限制區的經濟、產業發展有一定程度的負面影響，為了讓全國的水源區及保護區，都有公平的回饋，並且落實「使用者付費、限制者受益」的社會公平正義暨有效的水資源管理及違法取締，於民國九十三年六月十一日，立法院三讀通過「自來水法」第十二條之一修正。臺北水源特定區居民希望將現行由台北市自來水水費每度徵收兩毛錢做為協助地方建設經費之「協建經費」名稱改為「回饋金」，因為水源特定區內的地方建設項目，本來就是政府應該做的工作，目前的「協建經費」是把應拿來補償水源區居民受到權益限制及損失的回饋金，用來做政府本來應該做的地方建設，等於變相剝削了水源特定區居民的權益。而依照水利署對目前自來水法修正的解釋中說明，自來水法於九十三年六月修正通過後屆時將訂定施行細則，並在各地成立運用小組，可依各地方需求在保育費使用上，於社福、文化、教育、產業推廣、土地徵收補償等相關項目上各自訂立適當使用比例，而未來保育費的徵收，在施行細則中回饋金的徵收費率將是隨水費附徵百分之五到百分之十五，若以百分之五徵收比例計算，目前每年協建經費的金額約一億多元，而未來開徵的「水源保育與回饋費」預期可達目前金額一倍以上。而一旦「水源保育與回饋收費辦法」暨相關施行細則通過後，開徵後經費的使用，更需有效率的執行與管理與監督功能，才能落實水資源回饋金的功用，達到政府照顧臺北水源特定區內居民的美意。 臺北水源特定區協建經費政策於臺北水源特定區內實施，從民國八十七年第一期經費撥入至今的這段期間，協建經費使用的績效是否能達到當初政策目的，符合多元利益相關人的期待，值得做相關的研究與探討，期能透過此研究讓國人更瞭解協建經費之意涵及效益。

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Il semble que l’indemnisation des victimes d’infractions peut remplir deux fonctions en matière pénale ; d’une part, l’indemnisation peut être conçue comme une obligation au profit de la victime, sans qu’elle soit issue de sa demande. Dans ce cas-là, l’indemnisation s’avère soit une peine pénale, c’est l’exemple notamment de la sanction-réparation, soit une sorte de substitut à la peine pénale, comme dans le cadre de l’aménagement de la peine par exemple. D’autre part, et sous l’influence de la justice restaurative, l’indemnisation des victimes est censée de jouer un rôle important pour qu’une réconciliation, à la fois entre la société et le délinquant, mais aussi entre celui-ci et la victime puisse avoir lieu. C’est l’exemple de la médiation pénale. Toutefois, cette seconde fonction de l’indemnisation qui est relativement récente, agite l’esprit dans la mesure où le droit pénal doit se distingué du droit civil, or la réconciliation qui se fonde sur le consensualisme, ne favorise pas nécessairement cette distinction. / Compensation for victims of crime in the criminal justice field can have two functions; on the one hand, the offender may be required to compensate the victim in this case, compensation is considered a kind of criminal penalty is the particular example of the penalty-repair, or a kind of substitute criminal penalty under the modification of the sentence. On the other hand, and under the influence of restorative justice, victim compensation can play an important role in the context of reconciliation, both with the company but also to the victim by the extent of mediation criminal, which promotes social peace. However, this second function of compensation is relatively recent, agitates the mind insofar as the criminal law must be distinguished from civil law, or the reconciliation that is based on consensual, does not necessarily favor this distinction.