The Pragmatic Functions of Repetition in TV Discourse

Since repetition is a natural phenomenon used to perform various functions in interactional discourse, adopting a pragmatic analysis to the discourse of Dr. Phil and his guests on Dr. Phil's TV show, this study attempted to explore the pragmatic functions of such repetitions as used by English native speakers. The data were gathered from conversations between native speakers of English, and based on 7 full episodes of Dr. Phil's TV Show. The researchers watched, and studied these episodes on YouTube. The study revealed that one of the salient features of TV discourse is repetition, which is employed to perform a variety of language functions. Repetition was used to express emphasis, clarity, emotions, highlight the obvious, be questionable, express annoyance, persuasion, express surprise, give instructions, and as a filler in order to take time, when the speaker was searching for a proper word to say what would come next. The study concluded that these findings had significant implications for EFL/ESL teachers and the interlanguage development of EFL/ESL learners

Holy places that have played a role in the urban evolution of damascus

This study describes some of the shrines that contributed to the urban development of Damascus from the emergence of Islam to the middle ages. It also discusses the connection between the existence of holy places which attract pilgrims for religious and spiritual reasons, and the expansion of cities. The main sources for this study are writings in the ‘virtues of the Holy Land’ genre, augmented by the publications on this subject by Orientalists and Arab scholars

Millimeter-Wave Super-Regenerative Receivers for Wireless Communication and Radar

Today’s world is becoming increasingly automated and interconnected with billions of smart devices coming online, leading to a steep rise in energy consumption from small microelectronics. This coincides with an urgent push to transform global energy production to green energies, causing disruptions and energy shortages, and making the case for efficient energy use ever more pressing. Two major areas where high growth is expected are the fields of wireless communication and radar sensors. Millimeter-wave frequency bands are planned for fifth-generation (5G) and sixth-generation (6G) cellular communication standards, as well as automotive frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar systems for driving assistance and automation. Fast silicon-based technologies enable these advances by operating at high maximum frequencies, such as the silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technologies. However, even the fastest transistors suffer from low and energy expensive gains at millimeter-wave frequencies. Rather than incremental improvements in circuit efficiency using conventional approaches, a disruptive revolution for green microelectronics could be enabled by exploring the low-power benefits of the super-regenerative receiver for some applications. The super-regenerative receiver uses a regenerative oscillator circuit to increase the gain by positive feedback, through coupling energy from the output back into the input. Careful bias and control of the circuit enables a very large gain from a small number of transistors and a very low energy dissipation. Thus, the super-regenerative oscillator could be used to replace amplifier circuits in high data rate wireless communication systems, or as active reflectors to increase the range of FMCW radar systems, greatly reducing the power consumption. The work in this thesis presents fundamental scientific research into the topic of energy-efficient millimeter-wave super-regenerative receivers for use in civilian wireless communication and radar applications. This research work covers the theory, analysis, and simulations, all the way up to the proof of concept, hardware realization, and experimental characterization. Analysis and modeling of regenerative oscillator circuits is presented and used to improve the understanding of the circuit operation, as well as design goals according to the specific application needs. Integrated circuits are investigated and characterized as a proof of concept for a high data rate wireless communication system operating between 140–220 GHz, and an automotive radar system operating at 60 GHz. Amplitude and phase regeneration capabilities for complex modulation are investigated, and principles for spectrum characterization are derived. The circuits are designed and fabricated in a 130 nm SiGe HBT technology, combining bipolar and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) transistors. To prove the feasibility of the research concepts, the work achieves a wireless communication link at 16 Gbit/s over 20 cm distance with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), which is a world record for the highest data rate ever reported in super-regenerative circuits. This was powered by a super-regenerative oscillator circuit operating at 180 GHz and providing 58 dB of gain. Energy efficiency is also considerably high, drawing 8.8 mW of dc power consumption, which corresponds to a highly efficient 0.6 pJ/bit. Packaging and module integration innovations were implemented for the system experiments, and additional broadband circuits were investigated to generate custom quench waveforms to further enhance the data rate. For radar active reflectors, a regenerative gain of 80 dB is achieved at 60 GHz from a single circuit, which is the best in its frequency range, despite a low dc power consumption of 25 mW

Effective Internal Controls for Recognizing Contracting Revenues

Business leaders of contracting companies in Qatar struggle to develop appropriate internal controls over revenue estimates to mitigate the risk of financial statement manipulation. Grounded in the internal control framework of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that business leaders responsible for financial reporting use to develop and implement effective internal controls for recognizing contracting revenues. Nine participants from 3 private contracting companies in Qatar who had implemented strategies to develop and implement effective internal controls for recognizing contracting revenues participated in face-to-face semistructured interviews. Through a process of methodological triangulation as described by Yin, observations and documentary evidence supplemented data collected through semistructured interviews. Different themes emerged through the analysis of data that involved coding narrative segments. The research findings included themes of control environment, control activities, systemized project budget, accounting standards compliance, and risk assessment and monitoring. Business leaders of contracting companies may benefit from the findings of this study by gaining awareness of the need to develop and implement effective internal controls for recognizing contracting revenues. Implications for positive social change could come from identifying internal controls that increase financial statement reliability, which could lead to increased access to capital and debt financing and improved employment opportunities in Qatar

Radar High Resolution Range & Micro-Doppler Analysis of Human Motions

In radar imaging it is well known that relative motion or deformation of parts of illuminated objects induce additional features in the Doppler frequency spectra. These features are called micro-Doppler effect and appear as sidebands around the central Doppler frequency. They can provide valuable information about the structure of the moving parts and may be used for identification purposes [1]. Previous papers have mostly focused on ID micro-Doppler analysis [2-4]. In this paper, we propose to emphasize the analysis of such "non stationary targets" using a 2D imaging space, using both the micro-Doppler and a high range resolution analysis. As in 2D-ISAR imaging, range separation enables us to better discriminate the various effects caused by the time varying reflectors. We will focus our study on human motion. We will see how micro-Doppler signature can be used to extract information on pedestrians gait. We will show examples on simulated and experimental data