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<p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </p> <p align="left">IP multicast is an efficient mechanism for simultaneously transmitting bulk data to multiple receivers. Many applications can benefit from multicast, such as audio and videoconferencing, multi-player games, multimedia broadcasting, distance education, and data replication. For either technical or policy reasons, IP multicast still has not yet been deployed in today&rsquo / s Internet. Congestion is one of the most important issues impeding the development and deployment of IP multicast and multicast applications.</p>

Transposons are DNA segments that can move or transpose themselves to new positions within the genome of an organism. Biologists need to predict preferred insertion sites of transposons to devise strategies in functional genomics and gene therapy studies. It has been found that the deformability property of the local DNA structure of the integration sites, called Vstep, is of significant importance in the target-site selection process. We considered the Vstep profiles of insertion sites and developed predictors based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). We trained our ANN and SVM predictors with the Sleeping Beauty transposonal data, and used them for identifying preferred individual insertion sites (each 12bp in length) and regions (each 100bp in length). Running a five-fold cross-validation showed that (1) Both ANN and SVM predictors are more successful in recognizing preferred regions than preferred individual sites; (2) Both ANN and SVM predictors have excellent performance in finding the most preferred regions (more than 90% sensitivity and specificity); and (3) The SVM predictor outperforms the ANN predictor in recognizing preferred individual sites and regions. The SVM has 83% sensitivity and 72% specificity in identifying preferred individual insertion sites, and 85% sensitivity and 90% specificity in recognizing preferred insertion regions.

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This thesis describes research into electrical power takeoff mechanisms for Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy devices. The OWC application is studied and possible alternatives to the existing Induction Generator (IG) are identified. The Permanent Magnet Generator (PMG) is found to be the most promising. Results showed that the IG could almost match the output of the PMG if it could be operated significantly above its rated capacity. This improvement would require only limited changes to the overall OWC system. The ability to operate overloaded is determined by the losses and cooling of the IG. The losses in a suitable IG were measured in tests at Nottingham University. Steady state measurements were made of the cooling ability of the OWC airflow at the LIMPET wave power plant operated by Wavegen (the sponsor company) on Islay. Thermal modelling combining the loss and cooling measurements allowed the maximum capacity of the induction generator in an OWC to be found. A simplified model that accurately represents this system is proposed for use in system design and generator control.

This thesis is concerned with interfacing a magnetic stripe reader with an AT&T PC 6300 consisting of a 20 MB hard disk and with collecting laboratory usage statistics. Laboratory usage statistics includes the name and social security number of the student,along with other necessary details. This system replaces all manual modes of entering data, checks for typographical errors, renames the file containing a particular day's data to a file that has the current day's date as its new filename, and keeps track of the number of students for a particular day. This procedure will ensure security of laboratory equipment and can be modified for each computer laboratory on campus. The program results indicate an acceleration of data entry, favorable student response, and an increase in the accuracy of the data recorded. / Department of Computer Science

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a software system simulating Turing machines using a Microsoft Windows' Interface.Developed in the 1930's by Alan Turing and Emil Post, Turing machines are defined as "abstract computers" . These machines seem able to solve all problems a modern computer can solve, however complex the problems may be. A Turing machine is a basic computational model for algorithms.The software provides a practical tool to students with a relative notion of Turing machines. The software contains introduction and general information on Turing machines that gives the beginner enough background to use the program. The user can create, modify or run Turing machines saved onto MS-DOS files. Some examples of Turing machines are preloaded. These examples give more help to the beginner.An on-line help facility is provided in order to direct and inform the learning student at each level of the software.The Microsoft Windows' Interface makes the software easy and friendly to use. The software has the modularity which will ease any future enhancement. / Department of Computer Science

The thesis Is concerned with the development of a separately excited DC machine In which gate turn-off thyristor devices with their associated firing and protective circuits are used to provide the static commutation of armature coil current. The developed machine has Its armature winding with 24 tapping points located on the stator and Interconnected In "Lop" configuration. The Initiation of the conduction periods of armature switching devices Is defined by a digital control logic circuit. In conjunction with an Incremental rotary encoder which provides the necessary feedback Information relating to shaft speed and shaft angular position. This Is arranged such that, under normal running conditions of the machine, the axis of the radial field of the armature winding maintains the normal space-quadrature relationship with that of the main field winding, giving the optimal torque angle of 000. Provision Is made, however, within the digital control circuit for controlled departure of the armature switch tapping points from the quadrature axis positions, and the effect of this, In Improving commutation Is Investigated. The effect of Interpoles Is also explored. On the basis of the analysis carried out, a proposal Is made for the future development of the machine employing a reduced number of armature switching devices without the need for Interpole windings.

A laboratory threshing unit was constructed utilising a standard tangential feed ("conventional") combine cylinder, concave, beater and transition grate. This unit was used to study the phenomenon of corn cob break-up and its effect on the performance of the threshing unit. It was found that the degree of corn cob break-up was affected by cylinder peripheral speed, cylinder-concave clearance and hybrid cultivar. Within the hybrid cultivars used, increased cob break-up was associated with decreased shelling efficiency and concave separation efficiency. / The possibility of reducing kernel damage and increasing concave separation efficiency by changing some of the concave design parameters was investigated. A mathematical model of the tangential feed threshing unit was developed and used to investigate the effect of the concave design parameters. Experimental data indicated that kernel damage may be reduced by at least 24 per cent and concave separation efficiency increased by at least 38 per cent.