Molecular recognition is a major branch of modern organic chemistry, and it resides at the forefront of supramolecular chemistry. Supramolecular chemistry refers to the study of the noncovalent intermolecular interaction that are crucial for biological processes, catalytic systems, the organization of crystalline or solution phase superstructures, and molecular recognition to name a few examples. The following dissertation reports research efforts from the Anslyn group into three topics of fundamental interest to the molecular recognition community: cooperativity, array sensing, and the development of highly selective sensors for minimally functionalized analytes. Chapter 1 is a review of the most fundamental points of molecular recognition as it applies to the experimental work that follows. Intermolecular association phenomena are driven by multiple discrete, noncovalent interactions, and cooperativity is a measure of the efficiency with which these interactions are employed in a given system. Cooperativity is poorly understood despite its ubiquity in biological and molecular recognition contexts. The first synthetic hostguest system exhibiting positive cooperativity in water is reported in Chapter 2. The utility of sensitive but unselective sensors when applied in an array format has recently come to light. Chapter 3 details an array of polyaromatic fluorophores dissolved in an aqueous surfactant solution that was used to sense nitrated explosives. This exceptionally unselective quenching process was able to detect and discriminate nitrated explosives such as RDX and TNT at concentrations as low as 19 [mu]M. Finally, Chapters 4 and 5 report different approaches to the sensing of enantiomeric excess in [alpha]-chiral alcohols using an indicator displacement paradigm. Chapter 4 explores unprecedented efforts to convert the Sharpless catalytic epoxidation system to the first Ti[superscript IV]-based molecular recognition system. Chapter 5 focuses upon a two-stage approach of derivatization of the [alpha]-chiral alcohol to a metal chelating ligand followed by employment of the derivative in an indicator displacement assay. / text

Takaful is an Arabic term meaning solidarity, which is used to describe a system of Islamic insurance that functions as an alternative to conventional insurance. Takaful, as a form of insurance, is entering a fast growing global market, promoted by the growth of the Asian economies and economic prosperity in the Middle East. The Takaful system is based on the principle of cooperation or mutual assistance, and is Tabarru (Voluntary), meaning that the attendant risks are spread collectively across the group of volunteers. The Takaful system is best understood as a pact (or policy) ascribed to by a group of participants who choose to jointly guarantee themselves against loss or damage suffered by individual signatories, as confirmed in the policy. The prediction is that Takaful will be the default choice for citizens in Islamic countries in the near future. The combination of the system’s financial efficacy, combined with principles underwritten by religious correctness has accentuated the attractiveness of this, and similar, Islamic banking and financial products to Muslims. By examining the Saudi insurance sector, which is a market leader in the region, this thesis delivers a brief history of insurance in general and of the Saudi insurance legal framework in particular, and by so doing sheds light on Islamic insurance Takaful applications worldwide. It also engages in an evaluation of insurance products available in Saudi Arabia to determine whether the facilities offered by the insurance companies operating in the country incorporate obstacles and obstructions, which may impact on the effectiveness of governmental regulations and supervision in relation to setting a legislative framework. This influences the extent to which the foundations for the insurance market are secured in Saudi Arabia. The aim of the present study also leads to some suggestions and recommendations for future practice.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The purpose of this research was to evaluate the electronic-business readiness of the South African Government using the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) as a case study. Electronic-business in this research would be referred to as e-business.

No description available.

No description available.

Any decentralized retail or wholesale system of competing entities requires a benefit sharing arrangement when competing entities collaborate after their demands are realized. For instance, consider a distribution system similar to the observed behavior of independent car dealerships. If a dealership does not have in stock the car requested by a customer, it might consider acquiring it from a competing dealer. Such behavior raises questions about competitive procurement strategies that achieve system optimal outcomes. This dissertation consists of three main bodies of work contained respectively in chapters 2, 3, and 4. In the first work -- chapter 2, we examine a decentralized system that adopts an ex-post agreed transfer payment approach proposed by Anupindi et al. (Manuf. Serv. Oper.Manag. 4(3):349-368, 2001). In particular, we state a set of conditions on cost parameters and distributions that guarantee uniqueness of pure strategy Nash equilibrium. In the second work -- chapter 3, we introduce a multilevel graph framework that links decentralized inventory distribution models as a network of stochastic programming with recourse problems. This framework depicts independent retailers who maximize their individual expected profits, with each retailer independently procuring inventory in the ex-ante stage in response to forecasted demand and anticipated cooperative recourse action of all retailers in the system. The graph framework clarifies the modeling connection between problems in a taxonomy of decentralized inventory distribution models. This unifying perspective links the past work and shades light on future research directions. In the last work -- chapter 4, we examine and recast the biform games modeling framework as two-stage stochastic programming with recourse. Biform games modeling framework addresses two-stage games with competitive first stage and cooperative second stage without ex-ante agreement on profit sharing scheme. The two-stage stochastic programming view of biform games is demonstrated on examples from all the known examples regarding operational decision problems of competing firms from the literature. It allows an “old” mathematical methodology to showcase its versatility in modeling combined competitive and cooperative game options. In short, this dissertation provides important insights, clarifications, and strategic limitations regarding collaborations in decentralized distribution system.

Cooperative communication is a promising technique for wireless communication systems where wireless nodes cooperate together in transmitting their information. Such communication transmission technique, which realizes the multiple antenna arrays in a distributed manner over multiple wireless nodes, succeeds in extending the network coverage, increasing throughput, improving both link reliability and spectral efficiency. Available channel state information at the transmitting nodes can be used to design adaptive transmission schemes for improving the overall system performance. Throughout our work, we adaptively change loaded power and/or bit to the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol in order to minimize bit error rate or maximize the throughput. In the first part of this dissertation, we consider single-relay OFDM system with amplify-and-forward relaying. We propose three algorithms to minimize the bit error rate under total power constraint and fixed transmission rate. These algorithms are optimal power loading, optimal bit loading and optimal bit and power loading. Through Monte Carlo simulations we study the proposed system performance and discuss the effect of relay location and channel estimation. This study shows that the proposed algorithms result in exploiting the multi-path diversity and achieving extra coding gain. In the second part, we extend the problem to a multi-relay OFDM network but with decode-and-forward relaying. We propose an adaptive power loading algorithm to minimize the bit error rate under total power constraint based on two relay selection strategies. The proposed system leads to achieve both multi-path and cooperative spatial diversity using maximal-ratio combiner for the detection. In the last part, we consider also multi-relay network but with amplify and forward relaying. We optimize the bit loading coefficients to maximize the throughput under target bit error rate constraint. The proposed algorithm is considered more practical since it takes into consideration the channel estimation quality. The considered adaptive system has less complexity compared with other adaptive systems through reducing the feedback amount. Furthermore, the full network channel state information is needed only at the destination.

Cooperative communications is a new wireless networking paradigm that allows networking nodes to collaborate through distributed transmission and signal processing to implement spatial and time signal diversity to combat the effects of fading channels. These systems exploit the wireless broadcast advantage, where transmissions from an omnidirectional antenna can be received by networking nodes that lie within its communication range. Specifically, in cooperative relaying systems the source broadcasts a message to a number of cooperative relays, which in turn resend a processed version of the information to the intended destination nodes, emulating antenna array effects. The destination nodes combine the signals received from the collaborating relays, either to increase the capacity of communication links or to increase the reliability of transmissions between the source and the destination. This is accomplished with an approach similar to that used in recently introduced space-time coding techniques for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems.

This study explores the effect of implementing expert-developed concept maps and cooperative learning, as compared to direct instruction and cooperative learning, on student learning, experiences and perceptions. Using a mixed-methods research design, data was collected to determine the impact of these combined instructional strategies on students learning as measured by examination scores. Surveys were used to gather data on students' thoughts and feelings towards group work and concept mapping. Finally, a pre- and post-survey was used to determine if instructional strategies impacted students' perceptions of accounting. The results of the study show a significant difference in students learning as measured by examination scores between the treatment and control group. The majority of students reported a preference for group work as well as expert-developed concept maps. Overall students' perceptions of accounting declined in both the treatment and control group.

In this thesis, we consider a wireless network consisting of d source-destination pairs and R relaying nodes. Each source wishes to communicate to its corresponding destination. By exploiting the spatial multiplexing capability of the wireless medium, we develop two cooperative beamforming schemes in order to establish wireless connections between multiple source-destination pairs through a collaborative relay network. Our first communication scheme consists of two steps. In the first step, all sources transmit their signals simultaneously to the relay network. As a result, each relay receives a noisy faded mixture of all source signals. In the second step, each relay transmits an amplitude- and phase-adjusted version of its received signal, i.e., the relay received signals are multiplied by a set of complex coefficients and are retransmitted. Our goal is to obtain these complex coefficients (beamforming weights) through minimization of the total relay transmit power while the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio at the destinations are guaranteed to be above certain pre-defined thresholds. Our second scheme is a distributed downlink beamforming technique which is performed in d + 1 successive time slots. In the first d time slots, the d sources transmit their data to the relay network successively. The relay nodes receive and store the noisy faded versions of the source signals. In the (d + 1)th time slot, the relays aim to collectively provide downlink connections to all d destinations. To do so, each relay transmits a linear combination of the stored signals received during the first d time slots. Again, our goal is to determine the complex weights (used at the relaying nodes to linearly combine the source signals) by minimizing the total relay transmit power while satisfying certain quality of services at the destinations. We use semi-definite relaxation to turn both problems into semi-definite programming (SDP) problems. Therefore, they can be efficiently solved using interior point methods. We showed that our proposed schemes significantly outperform orthogonal multiplexing schemes, such as time-division multiple access schemes, in a large range of network data rates. / Thesis (Master, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-17 13:07:21.505