Two of the most prominent techniques to meet the next generation wireless communication system's demands are cognitive radio and massive MIMO systems. Cognitive radio systems improve radio spectrum utilization either by spectrum sharing or by opportunistically utilizing the spectrum of the licensed users. Employing multiple antennas at the transmitter and/or the receiver of the radio can further improve the overall performance of the wireless systems. Massive MIMO systems, on the other hand, improve the spectral and energy efficiencies of currently deployed systems by reaping all the benefits of the multi-antenna systems at a very large scale. The price paid for employing a large number of antennas either at the transmitter or receiver is the high hardware cost. Judicious transmit or receive antenna selection can reduce this cost, while retaining most of the benefits offered by multiple antennas. In my doctoral research, we have presented both upper and lower bounds on the capacity of a general selection diversity system. These novel bounds are simple to compute and can be used in a variety of different fading environments. We have also proposed and analyzed the performance of different antenna selection schemes for both an underlay cognitive radio and a massive MIMO system. Specifically, we have considered both receive and transmit antenna selection in an underlay cognitive radio based on the maximization of secondary link signal-to-interference plus noise ratio. Exact and asymptotic performance analyses of the secondary system with such selections are carried out, and numerical examples are presented to verify the correctness of the analytical results. Several sub-optimal antenna subset selection schemes for both a single-cell and a multi-cell multi-user massive MIMO system are also proposed. Numerical results on the sum rate of the system in different scenarios are presented to verify the superior performance of the proposed schemes over the existing sub-optimal antenna subset selection schemes. Lastly, we have also presented three novel hybrid analog/digital precoding schemes to reduce the hardware and software complexities of a sub-connected massive MIMO system. / Graduate / 0544

Approximately 50% of doctoral students in social science, humanities, and educational doctoral programs fail to earn the Ph.D. This number is 10% to 15% higher for students enrolled in online or limited-residency programs. Using in-depth interviewing and qualitative data analysis techniques, this study examined participants' recollections of their experience as students in a limited-residency doctoral program and their reasons for withdrawal. The study addresses the following question "What is the nature of the participants' experiences of doctoral attrition in a limited-residency doctoral program?" The use of a grounded theory analysis helped identify obstacles that ultimately cause students to withdraw from limited-residency programs. The elucidation of these barriers led to the development of a theoretical model comprised of three components; each clarified relationships between attrition and a support issue (i.e., advisor support, dissertation support and program support). These components were then combined into a single theoretical model that identified the nature of participants' experience of attrition. The theoretical model helps identify steps faculty and administration could take in order to reduce attrition. The study's findings are presented in a discussion of themes found throughout the participant's narratives. Recommendations for effective doctoral education practices from existing literature are supported in the findings of this study. The limited-residency doctoral program may consider offering several forms of support to improve doctoral retention. Additionally, the program should give close attention to the relationship between the advisor and the student. Recommendations were made regarding significant program factors, accountability measures for dissertation committees and chairperson, improved monitoring of attrition, and improving the overall communication with the dissertation students. The concluding chapter includes implications of the findings and recommendations for further research regarding doctoral student attrition.

Due to its extensive applications, VANETs had emerged as one of the important research areas in wireless networks. The main motto of vehicular technologies is to enhance traffic management by improving safety and also provide a reliable data exchange and information services among vehicles.   Vehicular communications is a co-operative technology that enables communication among different vehicles, infrastructure and other devices. V2V, V2I communication models are commonly used in vehicular networks. Recently, extensive research is being performed on hybrid model which integrates both V2V and V2I models. The main goal of this research is to study the nature of these communication models in an urban and highway traffic environment and suggest a simulated model which helps to which provide reliable vehicular communication.   Literature study helps to gain knowledge on the background of vehicular networks. Later, a simulated model is designed with the help of SUMO and NS-3 which implements all these communication models. The simulated model which is developed is classified into different phases and each phase represents a different communication model. Each phase is completely different from one another. All these phases are incorporated in both urban and highway traffic environments.   Performance metrics are evaluated and analyzed to study the behavior of these models. Throughput, PDR, Packet-Drop and Propagation-Delay are the performance metrics considered.   Simulation analysis shows that hybrid model exhibits a stable communication behavior when compared with V2V and V2I in both urban and highway traffic environments.

In the modern enterprises it is common that support and maintenance of IT environments are outsourced to third parties. In this setting, unencrypted confidential data may pose a problem since administrators maintaining the outsourced system can access confidential information if stored unencrypted. This thesis work, performed at ELITS, presents a solution to this problem; a design of a collaborative storage system where all files at rest (i.e. stored on disk) and in transit remain encrypted is proposed. The design uses a hybrid encryption scheme to protect the encryption keys used. The keys can safely be stored in a centralized database as well as sent to the clients without risk of unauthorized parties gaining access to the stored data. The design was also implemented as a proof of concept in order to establish that it was possible to realize.

Dans cette thèse nous avons proposé une méthode d’étude des variations paramétriques pour les systèmes mécatroniques continus et hybrides puis une approche du tolérancement mécatronique. Nous avons d’abord étudié les différentes approches existantes pour la prise en compte de la variation de paramètres. Pour les systèmes continus à paramètres variables nous avons choisi la méthode des inclusions différentielles. Nous avons repris l’algorithme de Raczynski et nous avons développé un algorithme d’optimisation qui se base sur la méthode du steepest descent, avec une extension permettant d’obtenir l’optimum global. Pour les systèmes hybrides, contenant des évolutions continues et des sauts discrets, et qui présentent des variations paramétriques, nous avons choisi le formalisme de l’inclusion différentielle impulsionnelle comme outil de modélisation. Nous avons repris ce formalisme et identifié ses éléments sur un système mécatronique. Nous avons développé des algorithmes de résolution des inclusions différentielles impulsionnelles pour un puis pour plusieurs paramètres variables. Pour visualiser les résultats, les algorithmes développés ont été implémentés sous Mathématica. Nous avons fini cette partie par une comparaison entre notre approche et d’autres comme celles autour des automates hybrides à invariant polyèdre, les inclusions différentielles polygonales et l’algorithme pratique de résolution des inclusions différentielles. Nous avons montré alors certains avantages de notre approche. En dernière partie, nous avons repris les différents outils utilisés et résultats obtenus pour définir et affiner notre approche du tolérancement. Nous avons défini la zone du fonctionnement désiré, les différents cas de figures qu’elle peut présenter et son intersection avec le domaine atteignable. Nous avons présenté un outil métrique basé sur la distance topologique de Hausdorff pour le calcul des distances entre ces différents ensembles. Munis de ces éléments, nous avons proposé une démarche itérative pour le tolérancement dans l’espace d’état. / In this thesis we proposed a method for the study of parametric variation for continuous and hybrid systems and an approach for mechatronics tolerancing. We first studied the different existing approaches to take into account the variation of parameters. For continuous systems with variable parameters we chose the method of differential inclusions. We took the Raczynski algorithm and we have developed an optimization algorithm which is based on the steepest descent method with an extension to obtain global optimum. For hybrid systems, containing continuous evolutions and discrete jumps, and have parametric variations, we have chosen the formalism of impulse differential inclusion as a modeling tool. We took this formalism and identified its components on a mechatronic system. We have developed algorithms for solving impulse differential inclusions for several variable parameters. To view the results, the developed algorithms were implemented in Mathematica. We ended this part by a comparison between our approach and others like those around hybrid automata invariant polyhedron, polygonal differential inclusions and practical algorithm for solving differential inclusion. We showed then some advantages of our approach. In the last part, we organized the different tools used and results obtained to define and refine our approach to tolerancing. We defined the area of the desired operation, the various scenarios that may present, and its intersection with reachable area. We presented a metric tool based on topological Hausdorff distance for the calculation of distances between the different sets. With these elements, we proposed an iterative approach to tolerancing in the state space.

This thesis describes a novel approach to augmenting the combustion performance of hybrid rocket fuels, specifically in terms of regression rate and combustion efficiency. Liquid additives are emulsified into molten paraffin wax using nonionic surfactants and cured to form cylindrical fuel grains. Fuel grains were tested in a lab scale, optically accessible hybrid rocket motor and compared to the performance of neat paraffin fuel grains.

Lately, as the market for mobile applications are growing there has appeared new innovative strategies that facilitates development of mobile applications for smartphones. One of those methods is hybrid development, the method has a tradeoff with performance, especially for older devices. Effects on performance is crucial when choosing development strategy. This study evaluates performance in terms of application launch time, and how it can be optimized. Performance is evaluated by performing real device test with a cloud service that provides a distribution of physical smartphone devices. / I takt med att mobilapplikationsmarknaden ökar har det på senare tid uppkommit nya innovativa metoder som underlättar utvecklingen av applikationer till smarttelefoner. En av dessa metoder är hybrid utvecklingsmetod. Metoden medför dock stora förluster i prestanda, särskilt för äldre enheter, vilket ofta ses som en avgörande egenskap vid val av utvecklingsmetod. Det här arbetet undersöker vad som påverkar prestanda hos hybridapplikationer med fokus på starttid samt hur det kan optimeras. Prestandan testas med hjälp av en molntjänst som tillhandahåller en distribution av fysiska smarttelefoner.

The inordinate reliance of the United States on the automobile for transportation causes a number of problems for the nation. Finite supplies of petroleum imported from volatile parts of the world place the economy at risk from price spikes and eventual depletion. Pollution from motor vehicle exhaust has public health and environmental consequences. Many politicians, automotive interest groups, and others advocate for the use of alternative fuels to replace fossil fuels. This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the following: Natural Gas, Ethanol, Biodiesel, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, and Hybrid Gasoline Electric Systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problems associated with the automobile that will not be addressed through a movement towards alternative fuels: urban sprawl, transportation equity, environmental degradation, and public health. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2016. / The l1-norm solution to an under-determined system of linear equations y = Ax is the sparsest solution to the system. In digital signal processing this mathematical problem is known as compressive sensing. Compressive sensing provides a mathematical framework for sampling and reconstructing an analogue signal at a rate far lower than the rate provided by the standard information theory. The reconstruction from few samples is possible using non-linear optimization algorithms provided that the signal is sparse and the sensing matrix in incoherent. The major algorithmic challenge in compressive sensing is to efficiently and effectively find sparse solutions from minimal measurements. General purpose optimization algorithms are not suitable for solving non-differentiable l1-minimization problem. In this dissertation, we survey the major practical algorithms for nding l1-norm solution of under-determined linear system of equations. Specific attention is paid to computational issues, in which individual methods tends to perform well. We propose a hybrid algorithm that combines complementary strengths of the fixed-point method and the interior-point method. The strong feature of the xed-point method is its speed, while the strength of the interior-point method is accuracy. The hybrid algorithm combine the two methods in a probabilistic manner. The algorithm tends to prioritise a method that is efficient and robust. The computational performance of the hybrid algorithm is tested on simple signal reconstruction problems. The hybrid algorithm is shown to produce similar recoverability of sparse solution as that of the xed-point method and the interior-point method. Furthermore the proposed hybrid algorithm is comparative in terms of speed and accuracy with existing methods. / LG2017

In traversing the diverse field of biometric security and face recognition techniques, this investigation explores a rather rare comparative study of three of the most popular Appearance-based Face Recognition projection classes, these being the methodologies of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Both the linear and kernel alternatives are investigated along with the four most widely accepted similarity measures of City Block (L1), Euclidean (L2), Cosine and the Mahalanobis metrics. Although comparisons between these classes can become fairly complex given the different task natures, the algorithm architectures and the distance metrics that must be taken into account, an important aspect of this study is the completely equal working conditions that are provided in order to facilitate fair and proper comparative levels of evaluation. In doing so, one is able to realise an independent study that significantly contributes to prior literary findings, either by verifying previous results, offering further insight into why certain conclusions were made or by providing a better understanding as to why certain claims should be disputed and under which conditions they may hold true. The experimental procedure examines ten algorithms in the categories of expression, illumination, occlusion and temporal delay; the results are then evaluated based on a sequential combination of assessment tools that facilitate both intuitive and statistical decisiveness among the intra and inter-class comparisons. In a bid to boost the overall efficiency and accuracy levels of the identification system, the ‘best’ categorical algorithms are then incorporated into a hybrid methodology, where the advantageous effects of fusion strategies are considered. This investigation explores the weighted-sum approach, which by fusion at a matching score level, effectively harnesses the complimentary strengths of the component algorithms and in doing so highlights the improved performance levels that can be provided by hybrid implementations. In the process, by firstly exploring previous literature with respect to each other and secondly by relating the important findings of this paper to previous works one is also able to meet the primary objective in providing an amateur with a very insightful understanding of publicly available subspace techniques and their comparable application status within the environment of face recognition.