Thematic groupings in Magpie Miao narrative

Magpie Miao is a Hmong-Mien language spoken in Guizhou Province of southwest China. This thesis presents a description of three particles (jik, nid, and dik) and participant reference, which are both useful for understanding boundaries between and climaxes within thematic groupings. The primary data source for this thesis consists of five oral narratives, one of which is included in the appendix. The three particles function as both aspectual markers and connectives. They function as the former when they occur at the end of a clause and as the latter when they occur at or near the beginning of a clause. Nid marks imperfective aspect, while dik and jik mark perfective aspect. As a connective, nid indicates a significant degree of continuity between the added proposition and the previous one: either the propositional content is similar or there is a special reason to emphasize subject continuity. Dik is used to indicate a new development or step in the narrative; thus, it implies a degree of discontinuity. Jik is the default connective when neither of the other two apply. Participant reference of one text is examined in detail. Referents in that text may be encoded as zero, pronouns, or noun phrases. The default encodings of referents in various contexts are presented, and then deviations from those defaults are discussed. In that text, greater-than-default encoding occurs after discontinuities and before climactic material; less-than-default encoding occurs when there is a local VIP. Another text, however, uses a different VIP strategy: pronoun encoding is the default for the VIP, regardless of the context. Finally, thematic groupings are discussed. Various kinds of discontinuities—time, place, action, and participant—are examined. Boundaries for major and minor thematic groupings are explained, as well as the climaxes within these groupings. Both the connectives and participant reference are helpful in understanding the boundaries as well as the climaxes. Also important to both is the reporting of speech

Apparatus for inductive-electromagnetic model studies

The object of this research is to design, construct and calibrate an apparatus suitable for electromagnetic model studies. A portion of the thesis is devoted to general review and theoretical consideration of electromagnetic prospecting. Theoretical analysis of electromagnetic survey data by mathematical methods can only be carried out for simple idealized subsurface conditions. Because of the difficulties of theoretical solutions, in contrast to the simplicity of the conditions of similitude in electromagnetic exploration, a model experiment offers a very useful means of studying and comparing the response of naturally occuring conducting mineral bodies. An apparatus suitable for inductive-electromagnetic model studies with which an extensive study of the electromagnetic response of various kinds of geometric shapes of models can be carried out has been designed. The apparatus is designed to give a linear dimension scale factor of 500 and to use exciting frequency in the model system of 500 cycles per second which gives a frequency scale factor of 2. Aluminum conductors in the model correspond to earth conductors with resistivity of 1.3 ohm-cm. In the described system, two small coils at a fixed distance apart, one acting as source and the other as receiving coil, are moved over a conductive material. The resulting field in the receiving coil is compared in amplitude and phase angle with the field in the transmitting coil. Results obtained from the model experiment were plotted as curves which show the relationship of amplitude ratio and relative phase angle with respect to position of the conductive material, and the response curves are directly applicable to interpretation of the field results --Abstract, pages i-ii

Hybrid Spam Filtering for Mobile Communication

Spam messages are an increasing threat to mobile communication. Several mitigation techniques have been proposed, including white and black listing, challenge-response and content-based filtering. However, none are perfect and it makes sense to use a combination rather than just one. We propose an anti-spam framework based on the hybrid of content-based filtering and challenge-response. There is the trade-offs between accuracy of anti-spam classifiers and the communication overhead. Experimental results show how, depending on the proportion of spam messages, different filtering %%@ parameters should be set.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Quantum Key Distribution with Blind Polarization Bases

We propose a new quantum key distribution scheme that uses the blind polarization basis. In our scheme the sender and the receiver share key information by exchanging qubits with arbitrary polarization angles without basis reconciliation. As only random polarizations are transmitted, our protocol is secure even when a key is embedded in a not-so-weak coherent-state pulse. We show its security against the photon number splitting attack and the impersonation attack.Comment: Security has been improved upon referee's comment. 4 pages and 2 figure