With increased demand for bandwidth-hungry applications such as video-on-demand, wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) has become a strong contender in overcoming the last mile bottle neck. However, the wide-scale deployment of WDM-PONs has been delayed mainly due to the high cost of wavelength-specific optical components. To realize cost-effective WDM-PONs, various wavelength-independent, so called colorless architectures, have been developed so that all the subscribers can have identical optical network units (ONUs). In such WDM-PONs, however, single-fiber bidirectional transmission results in degradation of system performance caused by interference between the signals and backreflections. This thesis investigates the impact of backreflections on single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PONs. A WDM-PON with various optical line terminals (OLTs) and colorless ONU configurations is presented. The dependence of the power penalty, caused by backreflections, on a variety of parameters is investigated. This includes parameters such as the source linewidths, receiver bandwidth, transmission line loss (TLL), ONU gain, chirp effect at the ONU and optical return loss (ORL), in various WDM-PON configurations. The WDM-PON with continuous wave (CW) seed light and remodulation schemes are both presented and studied experimentally. The impacts of the backreflections on the single-fiber bidirectional WDM-PON with various OLT and ONU configurations are compared and analyzed accordingly.

This thesis provides a critique of the penology of capital punishment from the perspectives of Christianity and Islam. In order to ascertain the basic theological approaches of both religions towards capital punishment, Chapters 2 and 3 examine the core Scriptural texts, laws and traditions of both Christianity and Islam respectively. These chapters reveal how different methods of Scriptural interpretation and differences in religious practice, within each faith, have led to divergent opinions regarding the legitimacy and acceptability of capital punishment. Chapters 4 and 5 examine two of the primary penological justifications for the death penalty; retributivism and deterrence. It is demonstrated how they can be used, within secular and religious frameworks, to both condemn and condone the use of the punishment. Chapter 6 considers a variety of contemporary methods used to execute offenders and asks whether the methods used have any effect on the religious acceptance or rejection of the penalty. Finally, Chapter 7 presents one of the most controversial aspects of the contemporary death penalty debate, namely the unequal application of the penalty as it pertains particularly to black offenders, indigent offenders and mentally ill offenders. This serious criticism of the death penalty is considered first in general secular terms and then in light of the teachings of both religions and it is asked how the religious arguments in favour of the death penalty stand in light of such serious violations of human rights and justice. The thesis concludes with the assertion that, while a strong case can be made from within both religions for the use of capital punishment in principle, in practice given current practices of criminal justice systems worldwide there is a strong case to be made, if not for abolition, then at least for a drastic curtailment of the practice and a long-term moratorium on capital punishment on religious grounds.

In this study, we examined the effect of cool roofs on commercial and residential buildings in each climate zone, by looking at monitored case studies and DOE-2 simulations from various sources of literature; and using an online tool - the Cool Roof Calculator and a simple COP ratio model to validate the results of the case studies. It was found that the Cool Roof Calculator does not take building form into account, hence a sensitivity analysis was first conducted to rank the importance of various building parameters against one another. The analysis was conducted on the EPC normative building energy model. Results indicated that roof absorptance coefficient, aspect ratio and number of floors were the three parameters that either ranked highest or were important parameters, and were chosen for further parametric analysis to evaluate the impact of these building parameters on total building loads. A simple COP ratio model was also developed to validate the results from the literature review and Cool Roof Calculator, and it was found that in terms of cost, for a prototype medium-sized commercial building, it is always beneficial to use a white roof, but cities in northern climates may have little advantage, and insulation may be a better choice.

[pt] Uma rede de comutação de pacotes deve garantir um mesmo grau de serviço a todos os seus usuários. Como a rede é um serviço compartilhado no tempo, não existe um consenso sobre o que é um tratamento equânime dos usuários. Com o objetivo de estudar a eqüidade entre os usuários é feita uma análise dos métodos existentes. Após ser feita uma classificação destes métodos segundo o seu enfoque, duas novas técnicas são desenvolvidas. A primeira é conceitualmente mais precisa e se baseia na proporcionalidade entre a medida de penalidade e a de congestionamento por canal atravessado. A segunda é mais eficaz e se baseia apenas nas medidas de penalidade. Ambas as técnicas atuam na janela dos circuitos virtuais e consideram igualmente a vazão e o tempo de retardo. Além disso, elas permitem que o usuário pondere de maneira diferente estes parâmetros de desempenho, de acordo com as suas necessidades. Para avaliar o desempenho das técnicas, são apresentados exemplos de suas aplicações. / [en] Packet switching networks are an attractive way of transmitting bursty data traffic, due to the extensive resource sharing they allow. This sharing, however, has to be done in an orderly way, securing a fair access to the network resources by all users. In this work, a detailed analysis of all existing fairness definitions is first made and then two new techniques to evaluate fairness are proposed. One scheme is conceptually more rigorous and assumes that the ratio between a penalty measure and a congestion measure should be constant for all network users. The second method employs only the penalty measure but it requires much less computing time. Both techniques assume that the network operates with window flow control. One important feature of the two schemes proposed is that they allow the users to select which parameter, delay or throughput, is more important for them. Several examples illustrating the behavior of the two methods are also presented.

Orientador: Robert Wayne Andrew Slenes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T17:24:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pirola_RicardoFigueiredo_D.pdf: 2191923 bytes, checksum: b7748fae2de0412c15ff97c6aaf0c09a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Em 10 de junho de 1835 foi sancionada pelo regente imperial uma nova lei de repressão aos crimes cometidos por escravos. Em relação à legislação existente a nova lei ampliava o número de delitos praticados por cativos, que passariam a ser condenados com a pena capital, e encurtava os procedimentos para o julgamento e execução de sentença. Apesar da recorrente indicação na historiografia sobre a importância dessa lei na repressão de movimentos de contestação escrava e na aplicação da pena de morte, o assunto tem recebido ainda pouca atenção. Esta tese de doutorado busca analisar o contexto que levou à criação e aprovação da lei de 10 de junho de 1835 e também sua aplicação ao longo do século XIX / Abstract: On June 10 1835, Brazil's imperial regent sanctioned a new law to repress crimes committed by slaves. Compared to the existing legislation, the new law shortened trial and sentencing procedures, and increased the number of slave crimes which were to be subject to mandatory capital punishment. Despite historiography of this law's central role in the repression of slave protests and in the application of the death penalty, the subject-matter has received little attention from historians. This doctoral dissertation analyzes the context that led to the creation of the June 10 1835 law, and also the application of the law thorough the nineteenth century / Doutorado / Historia Social / Doutor em História

Contractual penalty as a means of corroboration of a debt in business relations The theme of this Masterʼs degree thesis is the contractual penalty as a means of corroboration of a debt in business relations. The author has chosen this topic because the contractual penalty is a traditional private institution, which enjoys great popularity for its function and relative simplicity of negotiation in current practice. The contractual penalty improves a creditorʼs status. It makes a borrowers fulfil their confirmed obligation since in case of its violation, they would have to provide the creditor with performance representing both generalized compensation of the damage and a penalty. In spite of a frequent use of the contractual penalty, its legislation is rather brief and does not cover all problematic aspects. The relevance of the topic increased with recodification of the private law. The main aim of the thesis is to explore legislative changes and their impact on selected problematic aspects of the contractual penalty using chosen methodology. The thesis explains whether legislative changes solve existing problems of the contractual penalty or not, what new questions in the context of the a contractual penalty arise and to what extent the conclusions of judicial decision-making practices are still...

This thesis deals with one of the instruments of criminal law, specifically with the death penalty. The death penalty is already for many years a controversial topic and discussed it around the world. Even if this penalty many states have several years or decades canceled or not applied it, greatly debating whether they should be re-imposed. After an introductory explanation of why I chose the death penalty as a topic of my thesis, followed by a treatise about punishment, its kinds, purpose together with theories that look at this, and more specifically about what exactly is meant by the term death penalty and how the purpose of already listed, relates specifically to it. In the next part of my work we find general historical development of this institute, development of capital punishment in the Czech Republic and international documents concerning human rights and also my theme. In the context of the general historical development we look at how the death penalty looked like in antiquity, the Middle Ages, the period of absolutism gradually until we get to the present. Within Czech countries will focus on the developments till 1918, during the first republic, the Protectorate period, the postwar development and the development until 1990, when the death penalty was abolished in our country....

Travelling in the city is a part of everyday life for many people. It is sometimes difficult to choose the right combination of walking and public transport especially in unfamiliar parts of the city. We processed publicly available data and made a search engine for multimodal paths. The search engine was designed to be able to personalise results according to user needs and could be used as a web application or a shared library.

Death Penalty - Summary In my thesis I focused on one of the most discussed and one of the oldest institutes of criminal law - the death penalty. Despite the fact that the death penalty was abolished in most of countries (as a result of the abolitionist movement), some countries still continue to apply it. Also public opinion on this issue is not constant. The purpose of this research is not just to explore all aspects of capital punishment in the modern world, but also to reach a subjective opinion on this issue. This thesis is composed of five chapters. Each deals with the different aspects of the capital punishment. In the first chapter, I focused on the history of capital punishment in the world, from ancient world to the early 20th century. Chapter describes the application of the death penalty in different times and different cultures. I analyze the laws of different nations and countries and describe the methods of executions. I also pay attention to the opinion of well known authors (philosophers and politicians). The second chapter describes the history of the death penalty in Czech Republic, from the early beginning until abolition of death penalty in 1990. The third chapter is devoted to analysis of the current situation in the world. It describes laws and methods of executions in the countries...

Magister Legum - LLM / There has been an ongoing debate on the abolishment of the death penalty in Zimbabwe. The public, non-governmental organisations and human rights activists need clarity as to the effectiveness, justification and purpose, if any, of the retention of the death sentence in Zimbabwe. Therefore, this paper shall give an insight on whether or not the decision to retain the death penalty in Zimbabwe is line with the country’s international and regional mandate of protecting and promoting human rights.