With the increase of devices on the internet that comes coupled with the growing IoT field, there is a high amount of research being conducted on the topic. Whilst much has been done to make these systems more scalable and resilient by replacing the current standard architecture with a decentralized one, the applied models mostly focus on the implementation details of such a system, and little thought is placed on the algorithms used to structure the architecture itself. Instead, one of the many, already defined protocols is used, and the system is built around this. These protocols, whilst elegant and outright ingenious in their own nature are initially intended for other applications, and hence do not take any advantage of the domain specifics of IoT, and hence the implemented solutions are sub-optimal in terms of performance and overhead. This thesis attempts to bridge that gap by first providing data on an existing IoT system, and then using the data to leverage the modifications of the prevailing protocol for decentralized peer-to-peer architectures. This is done by introducing groups in the ID scheme of the system, and thus greatly modifying the internal structure, forcing devices with interest in each other to be placed closely in the structure. The consequence of this is that there is a major reduction of overhead in searching for devices, bringing the total number of devices required to be contacted for normal use-cases down substantially.

Data mining techniques, such as clustering, have become a mainstay in many applications such as bioinformatics, geographic information systems, and marketing. Over the last decade, due to new demands posed by these applications, clustering techniques have been significantly adapted and extended. One such extension is the idea of finding clusters in a dataset that preserve information about some auxiliary variable. These approaches tend to guide the clustering algorithms that are traditionally unsupervised learning techniques with the background knowledge of the auxiliary variable. The auxiliary information could be some prior class label attached to the data samples or it could be the relations between data samples across different datasets. In this dissertation, we consider the latter problem of simultaneously clustering several vector valued datasets by taking into account the relationships between the data samples. We formulate objective functions that can be used to find clusters that are local in each individual dataset and at the same time maximally similar or dissimilar with respect to clusters across datasets. We introduce diverse applications of these clustering algorithms: (1) time series segmentation (2) reconstructing temporal models from time series segmentations (3) simultaneously clustering several datasets according to database schemas using a multi-criteria optimization and (4) clustering datasets with many-many relationships between data samples. For each of the above, we demonstrate applications, including modeling the yeast cell cycle and the yeast metabolic cycle, understanding the temporal relationships between yeast biological processes, and cross-genomic studies involving multiple organisms and multiple stresses. The key contribution is to structure the design of complex clustering algorithms over a database schema in terms of clustering algorithms over the underlying entity sets. / Ph. D.

This study quantifies the rate of bed bug nymphal development, mortality, fecundity and survivorship during starvation for wild caught resistant populations. I then compare some of these characteristics with two susceptible strains. I found that resistant populations develop faster and exhibit less mortality per life stage than susceptible populations. However, there were no significant differences in the total number of eggs produced by the resistant females from the field strains during the 13 feedings/oviposistion cycles (P = 0.106). On average, resistant females from the field strains produced 0.74 eggs per day. Susceptible strains survived a significantly longer time without feeding (89.2 d and 81.4 d) than the resistant strains (RR, ER). The mean duration of adult life (from the day the female becomes an adult until the day she dies) for (RR) strains was 118.7 d ° 11.8 SE. The intrinsic rate of increase r or average daily output of daughter eggs by female was 0.42. The net reproductive rate Rₒ, indicated that one live female egg would, on the average, be replaced by approximately 35 females. Resistant and susceptible populations were found to be different in terms of development, survivorship, and fecundity. The differences between susceptible and resistant strains could be explained by a trade-off between the alleles that confer resistance and the fitness in the population. When compare the stable age distribution of a pyrethroid susceptible strain (HS) and a resistant strain (RR) there were not significant differences (?°= 9.0066, df = 6, P = 0.1732) in the stable age distribution, basically both strains were dominated by the egg stage. No significant difference was found in the expected reproductive contribution of the various life stages to future population size between the two strains (?°= 1.5458, df = 6, P = 0.9564). Despite this, the reproductive contributions of life stages other than eggs were generally higher for the HS strain than for the RR strain. For both strains changes in P? for the adult stage are expected to have the greatest impact on?? compared with changes in P? for the other life stages. The key to the reduction of the populations of bed bugs lies with the reduction of survival of the adults. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Aqueous-polymer two-phase systems consist of various combinations of water, polymer(s), low molecular weight component(s), and salts. These aqueous-polymer systems are comprised of two phases, each of which contains about 90 percent (by weight) water. Due to some very unique properties, these systems have been applied to separations involving biological molecules for at least a quarter of a century. In particular, these systems are inexpensive, efficient, and provide a mild (aqueous) and possibly stabilizing environment for fragile biologically-active molecules. These systems may also be designed for a high degree of selectivity. Although much effort has been expended in the area of polymer solution theory, the theory of why these systems exhibit this extraordinary two-phase behavior that characterizes them as viable liquid-liquid extraction systems for use with biologically-active molecules is not completely understood. A thermodynamic model which could accurately represent the phase equilibria exhibited by these systems would be useful for the design of systems for use in many different applications. A potpourri of thermodynamic models and their underlying theoretical structure have been critically studied for their particular application to predicting the phase behavior of aqueouspolymer two-phase systems. In particular, the Flory-Huggins model is reviewed (with discussion of its inadequacies and subsequent modifications); the theory of Ogston; the model by Heil; several local composition models (NRTL, Wilson, and UNIQUAC); and two group-contribution models (ASOG and UNIFAC) are all discussed. The development of a solvent-electrolyte model (Chen's model) based on local composition theory (in particular the NRTL model) is reviewed, and the subsequent possible modification of this theory for solvent-polymer-electrolyte systems is discussed. The pros and cons of each model are discussed and qualitative results are given. Quantitative comparisons with experimental data are made with several of these models when appropriate data are available. The main conclusions of this work are: 1. A major limitation to the modeling of these aqueous-polymer two-phase systems is the lack of experimental data. Sufficient, accurate data is needed for the reduction of meaningful thermodynamic parameters by which thermodynamic models can be tested for their applicability. There exists a definite need for the generation of accurate, meaningful thermodynamic data from well characterized systems. 2. The most promising model identified in this work is the theory of Ogston. First, the model is based on the virial expansion and is thus quite suitable for dilute solutions. The Ogston model is the simplest theoretically-relevant dilute-solution model. Second, it appears to be easily extended to solvent-polymer-electrolyte solutions. 3. The Flory equation of state approach appears to be promising for representing polymer solutions. The free volume dissimilarity effect on which it is based is extremely important for solvent-polymer solutions. The most important aspect of this theory is its ability to predict lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior -- for which the Flory-Huggins theory is totally inadequate. / M.S.

The quality of parametric power spectral estimates is analyzed and a lower bound based on the Cramer-Rao inequality for unbiased estimators has been computed. The quality of a least squares autoregressive (AR) ladder estimator is evaluated by simulation, in terms of bias and variance of the corresponding spectral density estimates. The AR ladder estimator and classical periodogram based moving average (MA) estimators are then evaluated against the theoretical Cramer-Rao bound for AR and ARMA process realizations. / M.S.

There are many methods for modelling the reliability of systems based on component failure data. This task becomes more complex as systems increase in size, or undertake missions that comprise multiple discrete modes of operation, or phases. Existing techniques require certain levels of expertise in the model generation and calculation processes, meaning that risk and reliability assessments of systems can often be expensive and time-consuming. This is exacerbated as system complexity increases. This thesis presents a novel method which generates reliability models for phasedmission systems, based on Petri nets, from simple input files. The process has been automated with a piece of software designed for engineers with little or no experience in the field of risk and reliability. The software can generate models for both repairable and non-repairable systems, allowing redundant components and maintenance cycles to be included in the model. Further, the software includes a simulator for the generated models. This allows a user with simple input files to perform automatic model generation and simulation with a single piece of software, yielding detailed failure data on components, phases, missions and the overall system. A system can also be simulated across multiple consecutive missions. To assess performance, the software is compared with an analytical approach and found to match within 5% in both the repairable and non-repairable cases. The software documented in this thesis could serve as an aid to engineers designing new systems to validate the reliability of the system. This would not require specialist consultants or additional software, ensuring that the analysis provides results in a timely and cost-effective manner.

No description available.

Dans une étude récente qui porte sur les employés des principales universités québécoises, Bédard et Léveillé remarquent que les employés universitaires présentent des caractéristiques démographiques bien différentes de celles de la population normale et que les professeurs vivent plus longtemps que les non professeurs et prennent leur retraite plus tard. Dans ce mémoire nous nous proposons de mettre à jour, en partie les tables de décroissance obtenues par Bédard et Léveillé (2005, 2008) et de vérifier leurs hypothèses. Dans un premier chapitre, nous retraçons les principales études liées au contexte démographique des régimes de retraite au Canada, au Québec et récemment dans la souspopulation des universités québécoises. Puis, nous présentons la problématique ainsi que les hypothèses de recherche. Un second chapitre aborde des notions actuarielles et statistiques liées aux tables de mortalité, de prise de retraite et de cessation d'emploi. La méthodologie est discutée dans un troisième chapitre. Nous exposons les données de notre étude ainsi que les méthodes que nous allons utiliser pour la construction de tables de décroissance et pour le lissage des taux de mortalité. Dans un quatrième chapitre, nous présentons les résultats de notre étude. Nous exposons tout d'abord les résultats globaux des trois universités participantes confondues pour vérifier nos hypothèses de recherche. Ensuite, nous entrons plus en détail et exposons les caractéristiques statistiques et actuarielles liées à la mortalité ainsi que leurs conséquences financières pour un régime de retraite. Ce mémoire se termine par une conclusion générale qui rappelle les grandes lignes de l'étude et présente les connaissances principales produites par ce travail.

Ce mémoire présente, dans une première partie, une étude détaillée de la mortalité adulte des Canadiens-français nés entre 1620 et 1749. Des résultats inédits sont présentés sous forme de tables de mortalité abrégées avec entrées échelonnées. La comparaison de celles-ci permet de décrire les différences de comportement observées entre les hommes et les femmes, les populations de régions urbaines et rurales ainsi que trois groupes de générations s’étant succédé au cours de la période étudiée. Dans une deuxième partie, une étude de cas visant à confirmer l’influence du caractère familial sur la longévité est présentée. Une famille se distinguant par les durées de vie exceptionnellement longues de plusieurs de ses membres est comparée à une famille fictive de référence, représentative de la population moyenne de l’époque. Les résultats opposant ces deux familles consistent en des âges moyens au décès et des proportions de survivants à différents âges. Cette deuxième étude s’inscrit dans le prolongement des recherches effectuées avec les ascendances de Jeanne Calment et Marie-Louise Meilleur. Les informations tirées des registres paroissiaux du Québec ancien et consolidées informatiquement par le Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) dans une base de données appelée Registre de la population du Québec ancien (RPQA) constituent la source exploitée pour la réalisation des deux parties du mémoire. / This thesis presents, in the first part, a detailed study of adult mortality of French-Canadians born between 1620 and 1749. New time published results are presented in the form of abridged life tables with staggered entries. The life tables are compared to ascertain behavioural differences between men and women, between residents of urban and rural regions and across three generations during the period studied. In the second part, the thesis presents a case study conducted to test the influence of inheritance on human longevity. A family distinguished by the exceptional longevity of several of its members is compared to a reference fictional family representative of the average population of the time. Evidence provided on these two families consists of mean ages at death and proportions of survivors at different ages. This case study builds on research conducted with the ancestry of Jeanne Calment and Marie Louise Meilleur. Information drawn from the parish registers of old Quebec computerized by the Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) in a database called Registre de la population du Québec ancien (RPQA) is the primary source used for the life tables and case study.

Characteristic L-shell x rays of the five rare earths Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, and Dy were studied in this work. The x rays were produced by ionization from 0.3 to 2.0 MeV protons from the 2.0 MV Van de Graaff at North Texas State University. Total L-shell ionization and x-ray production cross sections were measured for Sm and compared to the BEA, CBEA and PWBA theories. Total L-shell ionization cross sections were measured for Pr, Eu, Gd, and Dy and compared to the BEA, CBEA, and PWBA. The CBEA and PWBA fit the samarium data well for both ionization and x-ray production cross sections. The BEA was generally 40 per cent lower than the data. The CBEA and the PWBA also fit the ionization cross section data for Pr, Eu, Gd and Dy, while the BEA was generally 40 per cent lower than the data.