Development of Exfoliated Graphite-Based Human Breast Probe Sensor

Undergraduate Basi

Dynamic Forecasting Behavior by Analysts: Theory and Evidence

We examine the dynamic forecasting behavior of security analysts in response to their prior performance relative to their peers within a continuous time/multi-period framework. Our model predicts a U-shaped relationship between the boldness of an analyst's forecast, that is, the deviation of her forecast from the consensus and her prior relative performance. In other words, analysts who significantly out perform or under perform their peers issue bolder forecasts than intermediate performers. We then test these predictions of our model on observed analyst forecast data. Consistent with our theoretical predictions, we document an approximately U-shaped relationship between analysts' prior relative performance and the deviation of their forecasts from the consensus. Our theory examines the impact of both explicit incentives in the form of compensation structures and implicit incentives in the form of career concerns, on the dynamic forecasting behavior of analysts. Consistent with existing empirical evidence, our results imply that analysts who face greater employment risk (that is, the risk of being fired for poor performance) have greater incentives to herd, that is, issue forecasts that deviate less from the consensus. Our multi-period model allows us to examine the dynamic forecasting behavior of analysts in contrast with the extant two-period models that are static in nature. Moreover, the model also differs significantly from existing theoretical models in that it does not rely on any specific assumptions regarding the existence of asymmetric information and/or differential analyst abilities.Security analysts, herding, career concerns

High-level power optimisation for Digital Signal Processing in Recon gurable Logic

This thesis is concerned with the optimisation of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithm implementations on recon gurable hardware via the selection of appropriate word-lengths for the signals in these algorithms, in order to minimise system power consumption. Whilst existing word-length optimisation work has concentrated on the minimisation of the area of algorithm implementations, this work introduces the rst set of power consumption models that can be evaluated quickly enough to be used within the search of the enormous design space of multiple word-length optimisation problems. These models achieve their speed by estimating both the power consumed within the arithmetic components of an algorithm and the power in the routing wires that connect these components, using only a high-level description of the algorithm itself. Trading o a small reduction in power model accuracy for a large increase in speed is one of the major contributions of this thesis. In addition to the work on power consumption modelling, this thesis also develops a new technique for selecting the appropriate word-lengths for an algorithm implementation in order to minimise its cost in terms of power (or some other metric for which models are available). The method developed is able to provide tight lower and upper bounds on the optimal cost that can be obtained for a particular word-length optimisation problem and can, as a result, nd provably near-optimal solutions to word-length optimisation problems without resorting to an NP-hard search of the design space. Finally the costs of systems optimised via the proposed technique are compared to those obtainable by word-length optimisation for minimisation of other metrics (such as logic area) and the results compared, providing greater insight into the nature of wordlength optimisation problems and the extent of the improvements obtainable by them

Establishing a Multibeam Sonar Evaluation Test Bed near Sidney, British Columbia

The Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) and the Ocean Mapping Group of the University of New Brunswick (OMG) collaborated on establishing a multibeam sonar test bed in the vicinity of the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia Canada. This paper describes the purpose of the sonar evaluation test bed, the trials and tribulations of two foreign governments collaborating on projects of mutual interest, the evaluation areas and their characteristics for sonar testing, and sample results of sonar evaluations using this test bed. Some target detection comparisons of several systems over a range of artificial sonar targets will also be given

Seamless Online Distribution of Amundsen Multibeam Data

Since 2003, all underway multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen has been posted online within approximately six months of the end of each cruise. A custom interface allowing the user to access 15\u27 latitude by 30\u27 longitude mapsheets was implemented in 2006, allowing the user to download the bathymetric and backscatter data at 10 metre resolution. While this interface matched the underlying data management scheme implemented at the University of New Brunswick, the zoom and pan capability was at a fixed scale with limited contextual data. In the past few years, with the introduction of web-based geographic information systems (GIS) (e.g. Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps), there have been thousands of maps published online. These online GIS programs are a suitable platform to display the seven years of Amundsen coverage within the context of the GIS-served satellite imagery and allow the user to freely browse all data in a familiar interface. The challenge, however, for serving up third party data through these map engines is to efficiently cope with the multiple zoom levels and changing resolutions. Custom tiling software was developed to take all the raw data from the seven years of Amundsen (and others\u27) multibeam coverage and convert it into multiple scale resolution images suitable for interpretation by Google Maps. The images were stored in a pyramid structure utilizing Google\u27s map projection and uniquely named to reflect their georeferencing and resolution. This image pyramid is then accessed by Google Maps according to the user\u27s current zoom level to optimize visualization. This multi-resolution data is served up on demand from the University of New Brunswick for dynamic overlay on Google\u27s satellite data. This web interface allows any interested parties to easily view multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Pacific Ocean through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and into the Atlantic Ocean. The broad overview helps to understand regional trends and then focus on areas of interest at high resolutions to see particular features. The web interface also provides a link to the 15\u27 by 30\u27 mapsheet model with full source traceability