In digital watermarking, a watermark is embedded into a covertext in such a way that the resulting watermarked signal is robust to certain distortion caused by either standard data processing in a friendly environment or malicious attacks in an unfriendly environment. The watermarked signal can then be used for different purposes ranging from copyright protection, data authentication,fingerprinting, to information hiding. In this thesis, digital watermarking will be investigated from both an information theoretic viewpoint and a numerical computation viewpoint. <br /><br /> From the information theoretic viewpoint, we first study a new digital watermarking scenario, in which watermarks and covertexts are generated from a joint memoryless watermark and covertext source. The configuration of this scenario is different from that treated in existing digital watermarking works, where watermarks are assumed independent of covertexts. In the case of public watermarking where the covertext is not accessible to the watermark decoder, a necessary and sufficient condition is determined under which the watermark can be fully recovered with high probability at the end of watermark decoding after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel. Moreover, by using similar techniques, a combined source coding and Gel'fand-Pinsker channel coding theorem is established, and an open problem proposed recently by Cox et al is solved. Interestingly, from the sufficient and necessary condition we can show that, in light of the correlation between the watermark and covertext, watermarks still can be fully recovered with high probability even if the entropy of the watermark source is strictly above the standard public watermarking capacity. <br /><br /> We then extend the above watermarking scenario to a case of joint compression and watermarking, where the watermark and covertext are correlated, and the watermarked signal has to be further compressed. Given an additional constraint of the compression rate of the watermarked signals, a necessary and sufficient condition is determined again under which the watermark can be fully recovered with high probability at the end of public watermark decoding after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel. <br /><br /> The above two joint compression and watermarking models are further investigated under a less stringent environment where the reproduced watermark at the end of decoding is allowed to be within certain distortion of the original watermark. Sufficient conditions are determined in both cases, under which the original watermark can be reproduced with distortion less than a given distortion level after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel and the covertext is not available to the watermark decoder. <br /><br /> Watermarking capacities and joint compression and watermarking rate regions are often characterized and/or presented as optimization problems in information theoretic research. However, it does not mean that they can be calculated easily. In this thesis we first derive closed forms of watermarking capacities of private Laplacian watermarking systems with the magnitude-error distortion measure under a fixed additive Laplacian attack and a fixed arbitrary additive attack, respectively. Then, based on the idea of the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm for computing channel capacities and rate distortion functions, two iterative algorithms are proposed for calculating private watermarking capacities and compression and watermarking rate regions of joint compression and private watermarking systems with finite alphabets. Finally, iterative algorithms are developed for calculating public watermarking capacities and compression and watermarking rate regions of joint compression and public watermarking systems with finite alphabets based on the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm and the Shannon's strategy.

In digital watermarking, a watermark is embedded into a covertext in such a way that the resulting watermarked signal is robust to certain distortion caused by either standard data processing in a friendly environment or malicious attacks in an unfriendly environment. The watermarked signal can then be used for different purposes ranging from copyright protection, data authentication,fingerprinting, to information hiding. In this thesis, digital watermarking will be investigated from both an information theoretic viewpoint and a numerical computation viewpoint. <br /><br /> From the information theoretic viewpoint, we first study a new digital watermarking scenario, in which watermarks and covertexts are generated from a joint memoryless watermark and covertext source. The configuration of this scenario is different from that treated in existing digital watermarking works, where watermarks are assumed independent of covertexts. In the case of public watermarking where the covertext is not accessible to the watermark decoder, a necessary and sufficient condition is determined under which the watermark can be fully recovered with high probability at the end of watermark decoding after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel. Moreover, by using similar techniques, a combined source coding and Gel'fand-Pinsker channel coding theorem is established, and an open problem proposed recently by Cox et al is solved. Interestingly, from the sufficient and necessary condition we can show that, in light of the correlation between the watermark and covertext, watermarks still can be fully recovered with high probability even if the entropy of the watermark source is strictly above the standard public watermarking capacity. <br /><br /> We then extend the above watermarking scenario to a case of joint compression and watermarking, where the watermark and covertext are correlated, and the watermarked signal has to be further compressed. Given an additional constraint of the compression rate of the watermarked signals, a necessary and sufficient condition is determined again under which the watermark can be fully recovered with high probability at the end of public watermark decoding after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel. <br /><br /> The above two joint compression and watermarking models are further investigated under a less stringent environment where the reproduced watermark at the end of decoding is allowed to be within certain distortion of the original watermark. Sufficient conditions are determined in both cases, under which the original watermark can be reproduced with distortion less than a given distortion level after the watermarked signal is disturbed by a fixed memoryless attack channel and the covertext is not available to the watermark decoder. <br /><br /> Watermarking capacities and joint compression and watermarking rate regions are often characterized and/or presented as optimization problems in information theoretic research. However, it does not mean that they can be calculated easily. In this thesis we first derive closed forms of watermarking capacities of private Laplacian watermarking systems with the magnitude-error distortion measure under a fixed additive Laplacian attack and a fixed arbitrary additive attack, respectively. Then, based on the idea of the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm for computing channel capacities and rate distortion functions, two iterative algorithms are proposed for calculating private watermarking capacities and compression and watermarking rate regions of joint compression and private watermarking systems with finite alphabets. Finally, iterative algorithms are developed for calculating public watermarking capacities and compression and watermarking rate regions of joint compression and public watermarking systems with finite alphabets based on the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm and the Shannon's strategy.

Ämnesintegration är ett sätt att organisera undervisning för att eleven ska se det som förmedlas i ett större perspektiv, i syfte att skapa en helhetssyn på kunskaper, i ett effektivare lärande. Meningen är att elevernas motivation ska öka liksom måluppfyllnaden för undervisningen. Studien har för avsikt att undersöka hur karaktärsämneslärare på Industriprogrammet uppfattar ämnesintegration. Det som undersöks är vilka möjligheter och hinder för ämnesintegration karaktärsämneslärarna uppfattar genom kvalitativa intervjuer med 6st karaktärsämneslärare på Industriprogrammet. Undersökningen kompletteras också med en jämförelse av kärnämneslärares uppfattning om infärgning i en annan studie. Resultaten visar att karaktärsämneslärarna uppfattar fler möjligheter än hinder och har hittat sätt att övervinna hindren för att jobba ämnesintegrerat. Möjligheterna beskrivs som ökande motivation hos eleverna, snabbare inlärning och helhetssyn på kunskaperna. Hindren beskrivs som kunskapssyn, brist på kommunikation och tid. Lösningarna beskrivs som att ta initiativ, skapa gemensam tid och tydliga och enkla mål. / A correlated curriculum is a way to give the subject relevance in a wider context to strengthen the pupils’ education.  The idea is that students' motivation will increase for their studies, as the goals to aim for. This study intends to find out vocational teachers perception of a correlated curriculum within the Industrial programme. The studies of opportunities and obstacles of a correlated curriculum are made through qualitative interviews with six vocational teachers within the Industrial programme. The study compares vocational teachers understanding of a correlated curriculum with the perceptions of core subject teachers of another study. The results show that vocational teachers perceive more opportunities than obstacles and have found ways to overcome barriers to integrated working substance. The possibilities are described as increasing motivation, accelerated learning and a holistic approach to knowledge. The obstacles are described as approach to knowledge, lack of communication and time. The solutions are described as taking the initiative, creating common time, clear and simple goals.

A radiation code based on method of lines (MOL) solution of discrete ordinates method (DOM) for the prediction of radiative heat transfer in nongray absorbing-emitting media was developed by incorporation of two different gas spectral radiative property models, namely wide band correlated-k (WBCK) and spectral line-based weighted sum of gray gases (SLW) models. Predictive accuracy and computational efficiency of the developed code were assessed by applying it to the predictions of source term distributions and net wall radiative heat fluxes in several one- and two-dimensional test problems including isothermal/non-isothermal and homogeneous/non-homogeneous media of water vapor, carbon dioxide or mixture of both, and benchmarking its steady-state predictions against line-by-line (LBL) solutions and measurements available in the literature. In order to demonstrate the improvements brought about by these two spectral models over and above the ones obtained by gray gas approximation, predictions obtained by these spectral models were also compared with those of gray gas model. Comparisons reveal that MOL solution of DOM with SLW model produces the most accurate results for radiative heat fluxes and source terms at the expense of computation time when compared with MOL solution of DOM with WBCK and gray gas models. In an attempt to gain an insight into the conditions under which the source term predictions obtained with gray gas model produce acceptable accuracy for engineering applications when compared with those of gas spectral radiative property models, a parametric study was also performed. Comparisons reveal reasonable agreement for problems containing low concentration of absorbing-emitting media at low temperatures. Overall evaluation of the performance of the radiation code developed in this study points out that it provides accurate solutions with SLW model and can be used with confidence in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes based on the same approach.

A white Gaussian noise measurement model is widely used in target tracking problem formulation. In practice, the measurement noise may not be white. This phenomenon is due to the scintillation of the target. In many radar systems, the measurement frequency is high enough so that the correlation cannot be ignored without degrading tracking performance. In this thesis, target tracking problem with correlated measurement noise is considered. The correlated measurement noise is modeled by a first-order Markov model. The effect of correlation is thought as interference, and Optimum Decoding Based Smoothing Algorithm is applied. For linear models, the estimation performances of Optimum Decoding Based Smoothing Algorithm are compared with the performances of Alpha-Beta Filter Algorithm. For nonlinear models, the estimation performances of Optimum Decoding Based Smoothing Algorithm are compared with the performances of Extended Kalman Filter by performing various simulations.

Climate models are the primary tools used for understanding past climate variations and for future projections. The atmospheric radiation is the key component of these models. Accurate modeling of atmosphere necessitates reliable evaluation of the medium radiative properties and accurate solution of the radiative transfer equation in conjunction with the time-dependent multi-dimensional governing equations of atmospheric models. Due to difficulty in solving the equations of atmospheric and radiation models simultaneously, radiation equations have been solved when input data such as concentration, temperature etc. were made available upon solution of equations of atmospheric models. Generally, time step of conservation equations are 10-30 minutes but radiative transfer equation is called only once every 1-3 hours. However, there is inaccuracy due to the fixed radiation fluxes over the intervening time steps. To overcome this problem, the equations of atmospheric and radiation models have to be solved simultaneously and the solution methods have to be compatible. For this purpose, a radiative-convective model with radiation model based on method of lines (MOL) solution of discrete ordinate method (DOM) with wide band correlated-k (WBCK) was developed. To achieve this objective, a previously developed MOL solution of DOM with WBCK model was adapted to 1-D longwave clear sky atmosphere and its predictive accuracy and computational efficiency was examined on the test problem by using benchmark solution obtained from Line-by-line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM). The radiation code was then coupled with radiative-convective model and the predictive accuracy of this model was examined for several coupling intervals. Comparisons reveal that as coupling interval increases, although the computation time of the model decreases, the predicted temperature profiles diverge from the one obtained when equations of radiative-convective model and the radiation model are solved simultaneously and percentage relative error in temperature increases an order of magnitude when coupling time between radiative-convective model and the radiation model increases from 2 to 10 hours. Therefore, it can be concluded that the equations of the radiation model have to be solved simultaneously with the equations of the climate model. Overall evaluation of the performance of the radiation model used in this study points out that it provides accurate and computationally efficient solutions and can be used with confidence in conjunction with the climate models for simultaneous solution of governing equations with radiation transfer equation.

Until very recently, most emerging market economies have achieved higher growth rates for the last decade. It is controversial whether this good economic environment is due to domestic reforms or due to favorable external factors. In this framework, the main aim of this study is to investigate the structure and sources of business cycles in emerging market economies and to determine how these cycles differ than those in developed countries. The role of external and domestic factors on business cycles are analyzed by applying not only the conventional panel data estimations but also common correlated effects panel mean group method which is introduced by Peseran (2006). Besides, the convergence of business cycles in emerging market economies to the business cycles in developed countries is discussed based on factor analysis. The major results indicate the common global factors are the leading source of the business cycles both in emerging market economies and developed countries. However, domestic determinants of fluctuations differ across two groups of countries. In addition, results show that in the last two decades fluctuations in emerging market economies have started to be more dependent on the fluctuations in developed countries.

Für die theoretische Beschreibung verschiedener Substanzen, so z.B. für diverse Kuprate die Anwendungen als Hochtemperatur-Supraleiter finden, spielt das t-J-Modell eine wichtige Rolle. In vielen Fällen kann man Abweichungen der Verbindungen vom idealen translationsinvarianten Festkörper vernachlässigen, für bestimmte Eigenschaften ist jedoch der Einfluß von Störstellen,z.B. Dotieratomen, bedeutsam. Um solche Verunreinigungen einzubeziehen, behandelt die vorliegende Arbeit das t-J-Modell mit einer zusätzlichen on-site-Energie mit über die Gitterpläte zufallsverteilten Werten. Um für dieses Modell die Einteilchen-Greensfunktion zu bestimmen, wird ein Verfahren entwickelt, welches auf der Projektionstechnik basiert und die Einbeziehung des Unordnungsterms ermöglicht. Die notwendige Mittelung über die möglichen Unordnungskonfigurationen erfolgt näherungsweise durch Faktorisierung und ist verwandt mit der sogenannten average T-matrix approximation, wird hier jedoch auf ein stark korreliertes System erweitert. Zur Illustration wird der Grundzustand von La2−xSrxCuO4 und Nd2−xCexCuO4 bei einem zusätzlichen Ladungsträger über Halbfüllung untersucht. Wie Bandstrukturrechnungen zeigen, ruft die Dotierung der elektronendotierten Substanz gerade einen solchen Zufallsterm hervor. Dies wurde in der bisherigen Literatur meist vernachlässigt. Bei der Übertragung der Bandstrukturergebnisse in die Modellparameter des t-t′-t′′-J-Modells zeigt sich, daß der Einfluß der Dotieratome bei La2−xSrxCuO4 um etwa eine Größenordnung geringer ist als in Nd2−xCexCuO4 . Als wichtige Ursache hierfür wird der Einfluß der Apex-Sauerstoffatome angesehen, die im Fall von La2−xSrxCuO4 die Seltenerd- Dotieratome gegenüber der Kupferoxidebene abschirmen. Für das mit diesen Parametern belegte Modell wird anschließend die Einteilchen- Greensfunktion berechnet, die Ausgangspunkt der Berechnung verschiedener Observablen ist. Die für die elektronendotierte Substanz auftretende lokale Mode gibt zu dem Vorschlag Anlaß, daß die unterschiedliche Stabilität der antiferromagnetischen Phase für die beiden betrachteten Substanzen nicht nur auf die Art der Ladungsträger zurückzuführen ist, sondern auch auf die Struktur der Elementarzelle. / The t-J-Modell can be applied to several classes of materials, e.g. high-Tc cuprate superconductors. Often translational invariance can be assumed, but sometimes it is necessary to take into account the effects of the doping atoms at randomly distributed sites. Therefore a t-J-Modell with an additional randomly distributed on-site energy is investigated. To calculate the one-particle Green’s function considering this term of disorder, a method is developed which bases on projection technique. The average over the possible configurations of the dopand atoms is approximated by factorization and is similar to the so-called average T-matrix approximation. Here it is extended to a model with strong correlations. In order to illustrate the methode the single-particle ground state of La2−xSrxCuO4 and Nd2−xCexCuO4 is analyzed. Band-structure calculations exhibit that for the electron-doped case the doping atoms (in first approximation) induce indeed a term of disordered on-site energies. The transformation of the values of this energies at the copper sites into the parameters in the t − t′ − t′′ − J-model shows that the influence of doping in La2−xSrxCuO4 is by about an order of magnitude smaller than in Nd2−xCexCuO4 . The existence of apex oxygen atoms between the rare-earth plane and the copper-oxygen plane in La2−xSrxCuO4 is one important reason for that effect. The single-particle Greens function for the t-t′-t′′-J-model with these parameters is calculated. A local mode appears in the electron-doped case, which suggests that the differences of the stability of the antiferromagnetic phases in both compounds are not only due to the type of charge carriers but also due to the structure of the unit cell.

Thermal conductivity and thermopower measurements in strongly correlated electron systems at low temperatures

This thesis analyzes charge properties of (undoped) cuprate compounds from a theoretical point of view. The central question considered here is: How does the dimensionality of the CU-O sub-structure influence its charge degrees of freedom? The model used to describe the Cu-O sub-structure is the three- (or multi-) band Hubbard model. Analytical approaches are employed (ground-state formalism for strongly correlated systems, Mori-Zwanzig projection technique) as well as numerical simulations (Projector Quantum Monte Carlo, exact diagonalization). Several results are compared to experimental data. The following materials have been chosen as candidates to represent different Cu-O sub-structures: Bi2CuO4 (isolated CuO4 plaquettes), Li2CuO2 (chains of edge-sharing plaquettes), Sr2CuO3 (chains of corner-sharing plaquettes), and Sr2CuO2Cl2 (planes of plaquettes). Several results presented in this thesis are valid for other cuprates as well. Two different aspects of charge properties are analyzed: 1) Charge properties of the ground state 2) Charge excitations. (gekürzte Fassung)