In this thesis we study Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) and LDPC like codes over non-binary fields. We extend the concepts used for non-binary LDPC codes to generalize Product Accumulate (PA) codes to non-binary fields. We present simulation results that show that PA codes over GF(4) performs considerably better than binary PA codes at smaller block lengths and slightly better at large block lengths. We also propose a trellis based decoding algorithm to decode PA codes and show that its complexity is considerably lower than the message-passing algorithm. In the second part of the thesis we study the convergence properties of non-binary PA codes and non-binary LDPC codes. We use EXIT-charts to study the convergence properties of non-binary LDPC codes with different mean column weights and show why certain irregularities are better. Although the convergence threshold predicted by EXIT-charts on non-binary LDPC codes is quite optimistic we can still use EXIT-charts for comparison between non-binary LDPC codes with different mean column weights.

Development of linear modulation schemes has opened the way for spectrally efficient, high speed digital communication systems for voice and data applications. A trend has been to develop ultra wide and wide bandwidth modulation formats, which has meant feedback linearisation schemes (both analogue and digital) are no longer effective. This has in turn led to a number of approaches that involve predistorting the signal prior to amplification, with a characteristic that is the inverse to that of the power amplifier (PA). This thesis presents a polynomial based predistortion for linearisation of an RF PA. The predistortion characteristic is adaptive, using the LMS algorithm to minimise the mean squared error between output of the PA, and a scaled version of the baseband signal. This system can reduce third-order intermodulation by 40 dB when running in real time.

The goddess Athena is currently perceived through a series of contradictions. She is both warrior and reconciler, killer and patron of the artisan, a goddess who denies her own womanhood and ignores the existence of women. Using Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and the extant complete plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, this thesis reconciles each of these contradictions both within themselves and with each other. It finds that Athena had a prominent role as goddess of the polis: as a warrior she protected the polis from the external threat of war, and as a reconciler she protected it from the internal threat of civil strife. As polis goddess, Athena encourages peace and prosperity in her city; this requires that she inspire the artisan with techne, and the politician with wisdom. As polis goddess, Athena was also concerned for the perpetuation of her city and as such protected the children who were to be the future citizens, and the mothers who bore and nurtured them. This thesis argues that, as patron of techne, Athena becomes the patron of all women's work (which was all craft work). From this association the evidence of civic religion and the drama is used to argue for a relationship between Athena and Athenian women which was independent from Athenian men, independent from their relationship with Athena, and just as special. A unified interpretation of Athena as the polis goddess affords us a fuller and more realistic image of her as the goddess of Athens and patron of all its people than does one based on the "Imperial Athena" of the fifth century who represents only one side of Athena's nature.

What happens when we look at others, and when others look at us? How does the experience of looking at or being seen by others shape our perceptions of ourselves? This thesis addresses these questions with reference to a specific historical and cultural moment; I examine scenes of vision and display in the Athenian writer Xenophon's representations of Spartans, Persians and other non-Greek peoples in Asia as a means of investigating the place of Sparta, Persia and the non-Greek in fourth century Athenian thought. Focusing in particular on the Anabasis, Cyropaedia, Lakedaimonion Politeia and Agesilaus, I analyse the representation of the responses of spectators to foreign sights in order to consider how these texts position their readers in relation to Spartans, Persians and others, and also, therefore, how they articulate and interrogate what it means to be Athenian, and what it means to be Greek. I will argue that sight is involved in the construction of Greek identity; that although some of the ways in which Greek identity is represented imply its cohesion, more often Xenophon's scenes of vision reveal the uncertainties and manipulations involved in attempting to imagine or lay claim to Greekness; and that Xenophon reveals the complexities of Panhellenist thought and of the intellectual and political climate of the fourth century. This thesis contributes towards a history of Greek identity and a history of visuality; it also seeks to reappraise Xenophon as a writer, revealing him as a valuable source for Greek conceptions of political power and conflict, and of ethnic, political and cultural selfconsciousness.

This study provides a synoptic account of the development of Latin elegiac poetry from the first century BC to late antiquity. It focuses primarily on a group of texts from the fifth and sixth centuries AD in which elegy once again becomes a medium for sustained poetic lamentation, four hundred years after the death of Ovid, its most famous exponent. These texts are Rutilius Namatianus, De Reditu; Orientius, Commonitorium; Dracontius, Satisfactio; and the elegiac collection of Maximianus. Each work is interpreted in the context of the radical historical changes that were taking place in this period. The study makes particular reference to the influence of Ovid, as it analyses the distinctive formal and narrative modalities by which these poets present a variety of subject matter. It advances the hypothesis that each of the four elegies presents the experience of a traumatic loss or break. As well as providing detailed examination of these important primary texts, this study also invites re-evaluation of the elegiac works of the Augustan period, which have long been canonical in Classics. In so doing, it indicates the potential for a highly developed criticism of previously neglected works of Latin poetry.

This thesis seeks to investigate how translation is influenced by the translator's contexts, dealing with English translations of Homer between 1850 and 1950. English versions of the Iliad and Odyssey by eight translators from different periods are examined chronologically in their historical contexts, with reference to social, political and ideological circumstances. My methodology involves making use of translators' metatexts and other types of texts in combination with comparison of the translated texts. The debate between Matthew Arnold and Francis Newman reveals conflicting ideologies in the nineteenth century: the former committed to promoting a noble template for his society, the latter seeking to reproduce with exacting standards what he perceived as the true peculiarity of the poet. This ideological opposition is reflective of the intrinsic link between translators' interpretations of Homer and attitudes toward translation, and the Victorian age, in social, ideological and political terms. The thesis continues with two more Victorian translators William Morris and J. S. Blackie, focusing on the practice of archaism. Morris translated the Odyssey within a widespread movement of medieval revival. The same applies to Blackie's translation of the Iliad, but his medievalism was connected to the issue of Scottish identity. They idealised history and expressed their vision literalistically through archaising. The focus then changes to examine modernist versions of the Odyssey by Ezra Pound and H. D. Their fragmentary translations were good examples of the modernist project to achieve novelty and originality. Homer represented 'tradition' to engage with in order to pursue the ambition to, in Pound's famous expression, 'make it new'. The modernists took translation as an implement for revisiting the literary tradition. Lastly, this thesis explores mid-twentieth century prose translations by E. V. Rieu and I. A. Richards. Influenced by the egalitarianism of mid-twentieth-century Britain, they attempted to make their translations accessible to everyone. These translations of Homer were targeted at the 'general reader', and for that purpose, Rieu and Richards transformed Homer's originals into novels.

As argued, the connection between Athenian BC society and tragedy - an area of research far from exhausted - should be examined on the basis of an anthropological/cultural, and rather comparatively oriented perspective, rather than a purely historical or literary one. A further defence holds that such an approach explores in a fresh way the connection between the two which is based on a model of self, on the one hand, and Sophocles' and Euripides' characters on the other - both proposed to consist of the same culturally framed, yet diversely expressed components which define an individual actor/self as would be portrayed by anthropological studies. Because of the proposed nexus of variously expressed components, the staged character is seen as an agent who exposes the complexity and ambiguity of one's own self of whom the individual agent was unaware of possessing. The above argument, approached mainly through primary sources, will be defended as follows. After defining in the introduction concepts such as `self' and `performance', the discussion on the components of self and character begins by exploring their background - the ideology and culture of Athens. As argued, because of particular factors linked to economic and military power, Athens is contrasted with other Greek cities, and at the same time, its performance culture becomes the topos of the performing self. The second chapter defends the concepts of self and dramatic character, as well as the elements associating them which are cultural projections of the society, but also are associated with the notion of `self as presented in recent anthropological discussions of human agency. Lastly, the third chapter argues on the actualisation of the self's model on stage; after the comparative analysis of the characters' actions in three plays by Sophocles, and three by Euripides, the conclusion reached is that the proposed model of self, cultural, but also self-reliant, is an entity which is utilised as a model agent of staged characters.

The thesis consists of a critical analysis of the scholia Demosthenica on the First Olynthiac. The merits of the scholia are discussed through an examination of the different traditions of scholia on the speech. The thesis also contains a discussion of the value of the prolegomena Ulpiani and its relationship to the scholia proper. It is apparent that the author of the prolegomena was aware of different interpretations of the speech which have, in some cases, been preserved in the scholia. The sources of the scholia are examined and certain individuals have been identified as posible authors. Of particular interest is the possiblity that Menander Rhetor may be the author of a long unified commentary which is found in one codex. The influence of the Alexandrians appears to be less significant than is widely held. A summary of the development of commentaries and the function of scholia within that tradition is also provided. The thesis offers a complement to general works on rhetoric. The comments contained in the scholia and prolegomena are found to be perceptive and provide a fresh approach to the study of Demosthenes' speeches. There are clear indications that the scholia Demosthenica have been undervalued in the past.

An epinician ode is not only praise for a laudandus but also a form of civic discourse in which the laudandus conducts a debate inviting the audience to make a judgement. This enquiry investigates how the eighteen epinician odes composed by Pindar and Bacchylides for Sicilian laudandi accommodate the political and social aspirations of the patrons commissioning them. It also investigates how rhetoric contributes to the fulfilment of the encomiastic purpose in those odes. This enquiry situates the epinician odes in their proper historical context. It contrasts its findings with those of others. It concludes that in odes composed for laudandi other than tyrants the purpose of the debate is more often than not to counter suspicions which fellow citizens may harbour against the laudandus. However, the laudandi concerned appear to have been problematic already before they entered Panhellenic competition, and not, as some scholars think, because of their newly acquired status as Panhellenic victor. In particular, Pindar’s fifth and sixth Olympian odes are poems in which the suspicions of others are apparently countered as a matter of urgency. At the other end of the spectrum is Pindar’s first Nemean ode, arguably an ode composed for an unproblematic laudandus. This enquiry concludes that the presence of strategies of inclusion or exclusion is not determined by the status of the laudandus. It further concludes that odes composed for tyrants do not necessarily reflect a Herrschaftssystem: rather elements of Polisideologie are often used in these odes in the debate with the audience. Hence the variety of patron message employed in epinician odes is much greater than has hitherto been thought. Finally, this enquiry makes some observations on the development of odes composed for the Sicilian tyrants over time and links the observations with historical circumstances surrounding the Deinomenid and Emmenid tyrannies.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown University, 1989. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2920. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-133).