Network coding and duty-cycling are two popular techniques for saving energy in wireless sensor networks. To the best of our knowledge, the idea to combine these two techniques, for even more aggressive energy savings, has not been explored. One explanation is that these two techniques achieve energy efficiency through conflicting means, e.g., network coding saves energy by exploiting overhearing, whereas dutycycling saves energy by cutting idle listening and, thus, overhearing. In this thesis, we thoroughly evaluate the use of network coding in duty-cycled sensor networks. We propose a scheme called DutyCode, in which a MAC protocol implements packet streaming and allows the application to decide when a node can sleep. Additionally, a novel, efficient coding scheme decision algorithm, ECSDT, assists DutyCode to reduce further energy consumption by minimizing redundant packet transmissions, while an adaptive mode switching algorithm allows smooth and timely transition between DutyCode and the default MAC protocol, without any packet loss. We investigate our solution analytically, implement it on mote hardware, and evaluate it in a 42-node indoor testbed. Performance evaluation results show that our scheme saves 30-46% more energy than solutions that use network coding, without using duty-cycling.

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When individualism and liberalism rose from the western history, a new form of the conflict between individual and community had emerged. From this time, people start thinking that because we have the liberal right which belongs to every person, everyone can pursue his own self-fulfillment. However, when this kind of view becomes an ¡§atomistic individualism¡¨ conviction, it seriously threatens the peace and stability of our community. If the most important thing everyone cares about is his self-fulfillment, how can we reconcile the conflict between various values? How can we avoid the disruption of our community? The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the conflict between individual and community is inevitable, and if it is inevitable how we can find a way to face up to this distress by exploring R. G. Collingwood¡¦s political thought. For this purpose, in chapter one, I will more clearly expound my concern which will be explored in this thesis, and why we can answer the above two questions by exploring Collingwood¡¦s political thought. After this, I will start to explore Collingwood¡¦s view of the concept of freedom in chapter two, and we will find out that, for Collingwood, anyone¡¦s freedom can only be realized by interacting with others. Then I will further elaborate Collingwood¡¦s view about the relation of individual and community in chapter three. Following the proceeding two chapters, in chapter four, I will firstly point out that in Collingwood¡¦s view what is the meaning of freedom for us, and then show how he can provide us a way to face up the inevitable conflict between individual and community. Finally, I will conclude what Collingwood can inspire us who live in the twenty-first century today.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the political attitudes of Senior high school (including professional school) students in Kaohsiung as well as the relationship between the factors of school and family and students¡¦ political attitudes. The subjects of this study are Senior high school students in Kaohsiung.The sampling method is to use stratified cluster sampling method. The 626 students from eight schools were sampled as effect samples. The questionnaire was used to investigate the political attitudes of students based on their gender, their school attribute, and their grade level. Additionally, the questionnaire was also used to explore the relationship between students¡¦ political attitudes and the factors of school and family, including teachers¡¦ styles of discipline, peer relationship, the atmosphere of school organization, club activity and parenting style. Political attitude scales include five types: attitude towards public affairs, sense of political trust, sense of citizen duty, sense of political efficacy, and concept of democracy. The questionnaire is constructed with reference to a review of related literature and is developed by the researcher. The data is analyzed by frequency distribution, percentile, average, standard deviation, t-test, Pearson product-moment correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results are summarized as follows: 1. The political attitudes of Senior high school students in Kaohsiung are positive. The results of ¡§ attitude towards public affairs¡¨, ¡§sense of citizen duty¡¨, and ¡§concept of democracy¡¨ are better. The average scores are 3.59 , 3.89 and 3.99.¡@The results of ¡§sense of political trust¡¨and¡§sense of political efficacy¡¨ are less satisfactory.¡@The scores are 2.65 and 2.90. 2. There is no significant difference on political attitudes of students between different genders. 3. There is significant difference on political attitudes of students between different school attributes. Regular high school students were more active than professional school students. 4. There is significant difference on political attitudes of students between different grade levels. 5. There is a significant positive relationship between students¡¦ political attitudes and their teachers¡¦ styles of discipline, peer relationship, atmosphere of school organization, club activity and parenting style. That is, students hold more positive political attitudes when teachers¡¦ styles of discipline are more democratic, peer relationship is closer, atmosphere of school organization is more democratic , club activities are more democratic, and parenting style is more democratic. 6. When political attitude is the independent variable, significant predicting ability is demonstrated in the following five variables¡G¡§ atmosphere of school organization¡¨, ¡§parenting style¡¨,¡§school attributes¡¨ ,¡§peer relationship¡¨, and ¡§association activity.¡¨ Based on the results of this study, the following suggestions are provided: 1. Teachers are suggested to encourage students to express their opinions in order to form democratic atmosphere of school organization. 2. Parents should actively show their concerns about children, accommodate their emotion, and love them. Parental disciplinary style should be democratic. 3. Students should establish good peer relationship and learn inter-personal relationship. 4. Teachers are suggested to encourage students to participate student clubs in order to promote a democratic culture on campus.

<p>This thesis presents a new method for iterative road grade estimation based on sensors that are commonplace in modern heavy duty vehicles. Estimates from multiple passes of the same road segment are merged together to form a road grade map, that is improved each time the vehicle revisits an already traveled route. The estimation algorithm is discussed in detail together with its implementation and experimental evaluation on real vehicles.</p><p> </p><p>An increasing need for goods and passenger transportation drives continuing worldwide growth in road transportation while environmental concerns, traffic safety issues, and cost efficiency are becoming more important. Advancements in microelectronics open the possibility to address these issues through new advanced driver assistance systems. Applications such as predictive cruise control, automated gearbox control, predictive front lighting control and hybrid vehicle state-of-charge control benefit from preview road grade information. Using global navigation satellite systems an exact vehicle position can be obtained. This enables stored maps to be used as a source of preview road grade information. The task of creating such maps is addressed herein by the proposal of a method where the vehicle itself estimates the road grade each time it travels along a road and stores the information for later use.</p><p> </p><p>The presented road grade estimation method uses data from sensors that are standard equipment in heavy duty vehicles equipped with map-based advanced driver assistance systems. Measurements of the vehicle speed and the engine torque are combined with observations of the road altitude from a GPS receiver in a Kalman filter, to form a road grade estimate based on a system model. The noise covariance parameters of the filter are adjusted during gear shifts, braking and poor satellite coverage. The estimated error covariance of the road grade estimate is then used together with its absolute position to update a stored road grade map, which is based on all previous times the vehicle has passed the same location.</p><p> </p><p>Highway driving trials detailed in the thesis demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of accurately estimating the road grade based on few road traversals. The performance of the estimator under conditions such as braking, gear shifting, and loss of satellite coverage is presented. The experimental results indicate that road grade estimates from the proposed method are accurate enough to be used in predictive vehicle control systems to enhance safety, efficiency, and driver comfort of heavy duty vehicles.</p>

This study is a literary analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, which focuses on how female and male characters approach religion. A stark contrast is presented between the two approaches - differing according to gender - which point to two different forms of religion. The novel highlights one form, the religion of the heart, as the superior form as it empowers women to achieve spiritual, mental and physical independence. The analytical approach is based upon Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s theory of imprisonment/escape as well as Carol Gilligan’s discussion of ethic of care and ethic of justice. Through these theories my study shows that the function of religion in the novel is not to discredit it, but to bring to the fore the disadvantages and benefits of religion. In the character Jane a biblical feminism is displayed which challenges the novel's patriarchal society.

This explorative study strives to  investigate the marketing strategies companies apply in the Duty-Free market and whether consumers perceive them accordingly. The theoretical concepts used for this research were: marketing strategies in the Duty Free market and consumer behavior to allow a comparative approach. In addition, three Variables have been considered and explored: the Offer, the Customer Service and the importance of the Atmosphere in consumers’ purchasing behavior. A model  was created to  connect  all the theoretical concepts and contributed to answering the research question. Perspectives of firms and consumers were investigated  through interviews and surveys. The  Atmosphere, the  Offer  and the  Customer  Service  were examined  as marketing strategy’s variables.  The  former is relevant in influencing customers’ behavior, the  offer  of exclusive products meets the needs and expectancies of customers, but the poor customer service degrades the purchasing experience. The marketing strategies of firms need to be shaped according to these conclusions.

The following is an attempt to ground personal duty – duty which is both believed and felt by all agents. To do this, I look at two contrasting attempts. The first is a rationalist attempt, which tries to ground it in conceptual necessity, the second an empiricist one, which uses empirical fact as its basis. In particular, it uses contingent facts about the things which are agents (people, for example), and what makes them feel a sense of duty. I argue that, ultimately, it is this type of grounding of duty which can be successful. Throughout, I emphasize two crucial points. The first is the freedom of the individual; the second is that duty is not a "want" or "desire;" rather, it is quite often what one does against one's own wants or desires. I argue that a paradigmatic example of establishing duty is Harry Frankfurt's theory of autonomous love.

Tyrimo aktualumas. Visuomenėje vykstantys kultūriniai ir socialiniai pokyčiai kelia naujus reikalavimus asmenybės vystimuisi, o savęs vertinimo supratimo reikšmingumas tampa neišvengiama šių laikų kasdienybe. Tuo tarpu savęs vertinimas glaudžiai susijęs su moksleivių pretenzijų lygiu, arba kitaip sakant, su savo galimybių įsivaizdavimu: savivertė bendriausia prasme yra savo paties požiūris į save, savo teises ir pareigas. Dinamiška socialinės ir kultūrinės aplinkos kaita sąlygoja savivertės sąsajų su moksleivių asmeninių teisių bei pareigojimų supratimu nagrinėjimo svarbą. Šiai problemai spręsti ir yra skirtas baigiamasis darbas. Tyrimo objektas yra moksleivių savivertės ir požiūrio į savo teises bei pareigas tarpusavio sąsajos. Tyrimo tikslas – išanalizuoti moksleivių savivertės sąsajas su jų asmeninių teisių ir pareigų žinojimu. Darbo tikslas yra detalizuojamas uždaviniais, lėmusiais tokią darbo struktūrą: visų pirma teoriškai pagrįsta moksleivių savęs vertinimo problematika ugdymosi procesuose; po to išnagrinėtos pagrindinės moksleivių asmeninės teisės bei pareigos; toliau darbe atliekamas vyresnių klasių moksleivių savęs vertinimo bei asmeninių teisių ir pareigų tarpusavio sąsajų tyrimas. Tyrimo metodika, padėjusi išspręsti minėtus uždavinius, susideda iš mokslinės literatūros analizės (teorinės analizės ir apibendrinimo metodas), kiekybinio empirinio tyrimo (anketinės apklausos raštu), hipotetinės dedukcinės paradigmos metodo bei tyrimo rezultatų statistinės analizės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research urgency. Occurring changes in a society make new demands to the development of the person, and value of understanding of a self-appraisal becomes an integral part of modern life. In turn ideas, the self-appraisal is connected with level of claims of the pupil, with its understanding of own possibilities. The self-appraisal is a view at, pupil’s own rights and duties. Dynamic development of a social and cultural environments influences importance of research of connection between a self-appraisal of the pupil and its understanding of own rights and duties. On the decision of the problem this final work was directed. Connection between a self-appraisal of the pupil and its understanding of own rights and duties object of research. The purpose of the research is to analyse connection between a self-appraisal of the pupil and its understanding of own rights and duties. The purpose of the work is detailed in tasks determining its following structure: first, theoretically the problematic of a self-appraisal of pupils in the course of training is proved; then the fundamental rights and duties of pupils are analysed; also research of the connection between a self-appraisal of the pupil and its understanding of own rights and duties was organized. Methodology of the work, which has helped to solve the above mentioned tasks, consists of the following methods: analysis of scientific literature (theoretical analyse and generalisation methods), quantitative empirical research (a... [to full text]

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) with all-electric range (AER) combine battery driven electric motors with traditional internal combustion engines in order to reduce emissions emitted to the atmosphere, especially during short, repetitive driving cycles such as commuting to work. A PHEV utilizes grid energy to recharge the electrical energy storage device for use in the AER operation. This study focuses on battery systems as the electrical energy storage device and evaluates commercially available technologies for PHEV through scaled hardware-in-loop (HIL) testing. This project has three main goals: determine the state of technology for PHEV batteries through an extensive literature review, characterize commercially available batteries including simulated HIL response to a real-world PHEV simulation model, and finally, develop a tool to aid in choosing battery types for different vehicle styles (a battery decision matrix). The five different battery types tested are as follows: A123 Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) Li-Ion, Genesis Pure Lead-Tin lead acid, generic absorbed glass mat (AGM) valve regulated lead acid (VRLA), SAFT Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) and SAFT Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd). The batteries were characterized in terms of capacity and maximum power as well as tested on an individually scaled real-world duty cycle derived from a model developed by the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. When comparing the results of the characterization testing with the literature review and manufacturers’ data it was found that there are discrepancies between the batteries tested and the manufacturers’ specifications for mass and capacity. Furthermore, the response to duty cycle testing shows that it is imperative that the internal resistance of the batteries and their conductors should be considered when designing a vehicle, although the literature suggest that this is not commonly done. The results from testing were incorporated into a simple decision matrix factoring in vehicle design constraints, battery performance and cost. Through the duty cycle testing, the dynamic resistance of each of the batteries was determined by measuring the voltage response of the battery to variations in current draw. This resistance figure is important to include in simulations as it effectively reduces available energy the battery can supply due to increasing current demands, as voltage drops in response to a load. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-02-28 15:17:31.209