Walter Kempowski (1929-2007) is one of the most important authors in post-war German literature. In 1971, he published his first novel, Tadellöser & Wolff. This historical novel takes its point of departure in the everyday life of the bourgeois Kempowski family in Rostock shortly before and during World War II until the surrender of the city to the Red Army. The novel was initially very well received by literary critics and was also a commercial success. After the adaptation of the novel for film in 1975, Kempowski became even more of a public figure and won popular acclaim. In the film, however, important aspects of the novel’s literary mediation were lost, and as a result, the attitude among critics towards Kempowski changed considerably. In some groups he was viewed with suspicion and seen as the uncritical representative of the bourgeoisie. It was not until the beginning of the 1990s that he received extensive praise and recognition, much due to the publication of his multi-volume historical documentary work, Echolot. The present study explores Kempowski’s mode of writing in Tadellöser & Wolff from a narratological perspective. The main theoretical points of departure for the analysis are Franz K. Stanzel, one of the leading scholars of classical narratology, and Monika Fludernik, his successor in postmodern narratology. The mediation in the novel is very intricate and carries its theme in a complex and significant way. Though the novel depicts the milieu and atmosphere of the time in a detailed and realistic manner and, through the narrator, the voices, thoughts and opinions of the period resonate in a rich polyphony, yet the predominant narrative perspective is exploited in such a marked way as to create distance to what is portrayed. The fictional first-person narrator proves to be not altogether reliable.

Annihilation is the first novel in the trilogy named “The Southern Reach,” a ScienceFiction/Horror series of books written by Jeff VanderMeer. Annihilation focuses on a team of scientists on an expedition into an area where the very nature has been altered in mysterious ways. The scientists’ goal is to study this area to come to an understanding of what is happening, but like the eleven previous expeditions, they fail.   With the aid of narratology, I will argue that Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation is an unreliable narrative. To prove that, I will analyse and discuss specific passage’s unreliable narration used in the novel, as well as incorporating themes from the novel that directly correlate with the unreliability of the novel’s narrative.  Annihilation is filled with ambiguous language and events that are on almost every  level unexplainable using scientific methods. The way that the novel is written makes the narrator, the biologist, unreliable in her narration of the events that take place around her. She is tormented by both her past and by the beings that inhabit Area X, such as the Crawler. The results of this study exemplify the ambiguity of VanderMeer’s writing and how he uses this ambiguous language to further thrust the narrative into a void of chaotic unreliability. There is nothing in the novel that can be trusted as fact in the context of the world in which the characters inhabit, down to the characters own thoughts and memories. The presented themes of Annihilation are in direct correlation with the unreliability of the narrative and show how deep VanderMeer went into constructing the most unreliable narrative possible.

Control systems utilizing wireless sensor and actuator networks can be severely affectedby the properties of the communication links. Radio fading and interferencemay cause communication losses and outages in situations when the radio environmentis noisy and low transmission power is desirable. This thesis proposes amethod to compensate for such unpredictable losses of data in the feedback controlloop by introducing a predictive outage compensator (POC). The POC is a filter tobe implemented at the receiver sides of networked control systems where it generatesartificial samples when data are lost. If the receiver node does not receive thedata, the POC suggests a command based on the history of past data. It is shownhow to design, tune and implement a POC. Theoretical bounds and simulationresults show that a POC can improve the closed-loop control performance undercommunication losses considerably. We provide a deterministic and a stochasticmethod to synthesize POCs. Worst-case performance bounds are given that relatethe closed-loop performance with the complexity of the compensator. We also showthat it is possible to achieve good performance with a low-order implementationbased on Hankel norm approximation. Tradeoffs between achievable performance,communication loss length, and POC order are discussed. The results are illustratedon a simulated example of a multiple-tank process. The thesis is concludedby an experimental validation of wireless control of a physical lab process. Herethe controller and the physical system are separated geographically and interfacedthrough a wireless medium. For the remote control we use a hybrid model predictivecontroller. The results reflect the difficulties in wireless control as well as theyhighlight the flexibility and possibilities one obtains by using wireless instead of awired communication medium. / VR, SSF, VINNOVA via Networked Embedded Control Systems, EU Sixt Framework Program via HYCON and SOCRADES

In a broader sense the main research objective of this thesis (and ongoing research work) is distributed knowledge management for mobile dynamic systems. But the primary focus and presented work focuses on communication/interoperability of heterogeneous entities in an infrastructure less paradigm, a distributed resource manipulation infrastructure and distributed learning in the absence of global knowledge. The research objectives achieved discover the design aspects of heterogeneous distributed knowledge systems towards establishing a seamless integration. This thesis doesn’t cover all aspects in this work; rather focuses on interoperability and distributed learning. Firstly a discussion on the issues in knowledge management for swarm of heterogeneous entities is presented. This is done in a broader and rather abstract fashion to provide an insight of motivation for interoperability and distributed learning towards knowledge management. Moreover this will also serve the reader to understand the ongoing work and research activities in much broader perspective. Primary focus of this thesis is communication/interoperability of heterogeneous entities in an infrastructure less paradigm, a distributed resource manipulation infrastructure and distributed learning in the absence of global knowledge. In dynamic environments for mobile autonomous systems such as robot swarms or mobile software agents there is a need for autonomic publishing and discovery of resources and just-in-time integration for on-the-fly service consumption without any a priori knowledge. SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) serves the purpose of resource reuse and sharing of services different entities. Web services (a SOA manifestation) achieves these objectives but its exploitation in dynamic environments, where the communication infrastructure is lacking, requires a considerable research. Generally Web services are exploited in stable client-server paradigms, which is a pressing assumption when dynamic distributed systems are considered. UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) is the main pediment in the exploitation of Web services in distributed control and dynamic natured systems. UDDI can be considered as a directory for publication and discovery of categorized Web services but assumes a centralized registry; even if distributed registries and associated mechanism are employed problems of collaborative communication in infrastructure less paradigms are ignored. Towards interoperability main contribution this thesis is a mediator-based distributed Web services discovery and invocation middleware, which provides a collaborative and decentralized services discovery and management middleware for infrastructure-less mobile dynamic systems with heterogeneous communication capabilities. Heterogeneity of communication capabilities is abstracted in middleware by a conceptual classification of computing entities on the basis of their communication capabilities and communication issues are resolved via conceptual overlay formation for query propagation in system. The proposed and developed middleware has not only been evaluated extensively using Player Stage simulator but also been applied in physical robot swarms. Experimental validations analyze the results in different communication modes i. active and ii. passive mode of communication with and without shared resource conflict resolution. I analyze discoverable Web services with respect to time, services available in complete view of cluster and the impact and resultant improvements in distributed Web services discovery by using caching and semantics. Second part of this thesis focuses on distributed learning in the absence of global information. This thesis takes the argument of defeasibility (common-sense inference) as the basis of intelligence in human-beings, in which conclusions/inferences are drawn and refuted at the same time as more information becomes available. The ability of common-sense reasoning to adapt to dynamic environments and reasoning with uncertainty in the absence of global information seems to be best fit for distributed learning for dynamic systems. This thesis, thus, overviews epistemic cognition in human beings, which motivates the need of a similar epistemic cognitive solution in fabricated systems and considers formal concept analysis as a case for incremental and distributed learning of formal concepts. Thesis also presents a representational schema for underlying logic formalism and formal concepts. An algorithm for incremental learning and its use-case for robotic navigation, in which robots incrementally learn formal concepts and perform common-sense reasoning for their intelligent navigation, is also presented. Moreover elaboration of the logic formalism employed and details of implementation of developed defeasible reasoning engine is given in the latter half of this thesis. In summary, the research results and achievements described in this thesis focus on interoperability and distributed learning for heterogeneous distributed knowledge systems which contributes towards establishing a seamless integration in mobile dynamic systems. / QC 20100614 / ROBOSWARM EU FP6

Real-time multimedia streaming is an extensively researched topic. The possibility of streaming video over the internet in real time requires smart solutions on many levels at the player and streamer side, as well as along the intermediate network. There are many different methods used to achieve this, but not all of them are suitable for the low latency real-time streaming needed for remote operations of vehicles. This thesis focuses on the bit-rate control at the streamer side to achieve low latency, meaning how the video quality is changed to adapt to the changes in the network. A literature study was conducted, in order to find what algorithms are currently being used for real-time streaming. It investigated both what control methods are used, as well as what feedback metrics are feed to these controllers. These approaches where then evaluated from a theoretical standpoint for real-time low latency streaming on 4G networks together with the rest of the assumed system. Using these discovered methods, two new algorithms were created. They were tested against an already existing benchmark controller, both in simulation and on a real network. As the benchmark algorithm proved to already be using all suitable feedback metrics, only small control alterations where done to the existing benchmark algorithm. The goal for the new algorithms was to increase the total throughput of the video stream, without decreasing the robustness and causing a higher latency.  Simulation and real network tests proved that the new algorithms are unable to provide a higher throughput without increasing the latency. The conclusion is that the benchmark controller is well designed and explicitly configured to work for the goal of low latency video streaming. This being the case with many controllers in the industry, as they are well designed and extensively trimmed for their specific task.

<p>This thesis attempts to address the notion of unreliable narration and its treatment tn the postmodern novel. More specifically, it seeks to identify a number of characteristics shared by novels which offer fictional treatments of historical biographies and autobiographies. These characteristics include the use of dual ontological narrative structures, self-reflexivity, the deconstruction of authority and the genre in question, and finally, the existence of psychological truth in the narrators.</p> <p>Chapter One briefly addresses the historical development of unreliable narration, examining works from Henry Fielding through to postmoderntsm. Chapter Two begins the Inquiry into specific works by examining Michael Ondaatje's autobiographical novel, Running in the Family, and the way that the narrator fabricates a relationship with the father he has barely known in order to cope with the experience of loss. Chapter Three concerns Timothy Findley's The Wars, and the deconstruction of authority in the portrayal of history through a narrator who, because of emotional involvement with his/her subject, actively fictionalizes what ts ostensibly intended to be a faithful historical account. Finally, Chapter Four examines Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries, and its narrator's active invention of emotional experience in order to impose meaning on what she perceives as a meaningless existence.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Research has shown that the present-tense novel poses significant logical problems of narrative mediation. For this reason, the current essay addresses the question of whether, due to these problems, the heterodiegetic present-tense novel is a case of unreliable narration. To this end, the essay first discusses the sustainability of the concept of unreliability. Its point of departure is the observation that researchers have created significant confusion by applying a characterological concept to literary phenomena. Despite an overwhelming amount of pertinent essays and monographs on the topic, the central questions raised by this concept are still highly contested: To which narrative instances can we plausibly apply the category of unreliability? Precisely which narratological aspects of the mediating instance can we account for using the category of unreliability ?

Diploma Thesis Abstract This thesis deals with a new institute in the financial law - an unreliable value added tax payor. This institute was established as one of the means of improving tax collection and is closely related to the liability of a third party - the payor of value added tax; the recipient of taxable transaction. Listing tax payors in a list of unreliable payors caters to the potential guarantor, but this is at the expense of increasing the administrative burden since the recipient of taxable transactions has to consult the list of tax payors before making any transaction and, as the case may be, enter into a contract in order to gain protection in the event that the provider of taxable transaction is included in the list of unreliable payors. The designation of a value added tax payor as an unreliable payor is not stipulated by law quite clearly, but it is based on an internal regulation known as the Information of the General Tax Directorate. The protection from tax evasion in the form of blacklisting business entities - in the records of unreliable payors - may represent an administrative burden that is too onerous for entrepreneurs as well as substantial financial costs associated with the entire unreliable payor agendas. In all probability, it is also contrary to Council Directive...

A comprehensive failure detection model is proposed to detect service failures in asynchronous distributed systems. The proposed model takes advantage of P2P technology to provide required functionality. When compared to similar studies in failure detection, the presented failure detection model is more autonomous in resolving service dependencies, embodies more flexibility in providing different failure detection functions (like unreliable failure detectors, membership services) and offers more security. A failure detection library is developed using JXTA P2P framework to show realization of such a model.

Production lines with unreliable machines have received a great amount of attention in the literature. Especially, two-station systems have mostly been studied because such systems are easier to handle when compared to the longer lines. In literature, longer lines are usually evaluated by a decomposition algorithm, whereby the long line is partitioned into chunks of two-station lines. Decomposition algorithms require intermediate buffer storages of capacity at least two or three. The trends in modern manufacturing practices, on the other hand, such as the Toyota Production System, dictate that intermediate storages be eliminated. Our work studies multi-station lines with no intermediate storage. We develop software to automate the generation of transition probability matrices to allow the analysis of system behavior. The algorithm allows the use of software packages to handle computations and to solve for exact solutions. Long-run behavior is obtained via the algorithm developed in the computational environment MATLAB. The purpose is to analyze the system performance measures such as starvation and blockage times of stations, production rate and work-in-process. In addition, the production rate and the work-in-process measures over failure and repair probabilities are curve-fit to establish simple and useful empirical formulas for lines consisting three, four and five identical stations. Numerical analyses show that the proposed algorithm is effective for exact solutions and the suggested formulas are valid for approximate solutions.