Subband coding for image data archiving

The use of subband coding on image data is discussed. An overview of subband coding is given. Advantages of subbanding for browsing and progressive resolution are presented. Implementations for lossless and lossy coding are discussed. Algorithm considerations and simple implementations of subband systems are given

A reconfigurable multicarrier demodulator architecture

An architecture based on parallel and pipline design approaches has been developed for the Frequency Division Multiple Access/Time Domain Multiplexed (FDMA/TDM) conversion system. The architecture has two main modules namely the transmultiplexer and the demodulator. The transmultiplexer has two pipelined modules. These are the shared multiplexed polyphase filter and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The demodulator consists of carrier, clock, and data recovery modules which are interactive. Progress on the design of the MultiCarrier Demodulator (MCD) using commercially available chips and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and simulation studies using Viewlogic software will be presented at the conference

High speed hardware development for FDMA/TDM system

The development of a transmultiplexor and a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) demodulator is discussed. The system is designed to meet real time signal processing requirements of future satellite systems and should consume very little power. The architectures of the transmultiplexor and the demodulator are designed for the pipelining of all the modules, namely the commutator, the filter bank fast fourier transform (FFT), and the internal modules of the QPSK. The architecture is designed for the case of 800 channels. Each channel is to have a bandwidth of 45 KHz and a bit rate of 64 Kb/s. In this case each module will have 22.22 micro seconds to complete a computation

“I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves:” Feminism and abolition through the works of Mary Wollstonecraft

This paper explores Mary Wollstonecraft’s anti-slavery and feminist views throughout her writings. In the late 1700’s Wollstonecraft gained much attention as a result of two of her pieces: The Vindication of the Rights of Man and the Vindication of the Rights of Women. Both pieces integrate the evolution of Wollstonecraft’s anti-slavery and feminist views. Various biographers and historians argue that Wollstonecraft’s anti-slavery and feminist views derived from her difficult life experiences and manifested into her writing; however, the relationship between her anti-slavery views and feminist views has not been discussed. This paper argues that Wollstonecraft’s feminist views influenced her anti-slavery views, as evident through her writings

Determining immunological correlates of protection against group B streptococcus colonization in pregnant women

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2016Introduction: Maternal recto-vaginal colonization with Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the major risk factor for invasive GBS disease in newborn’s. Maternal vaccination against GBS during pregnancy may prevent or reduce subsequent recto-vaginal colonization in women, which could lower fetal/newborn exposure to GBS and contribute to reducing GBS associated infections during early infancy. In this study we determined the immunological correlates of protection against GBS colonization in black African pregnant women. Methods: We compared GBS serotype-specific serum IgG, mucosal IgG, mucosal IgA and cellular immune responses in relation to GBS rectovaginal acquisition and clearance in pregnant women from 20 to 37+ weeks of gestational age. Furthermore, we also evaluated different media for isolation of GBS from vaginal and rectal swabs. Results: The prevalence of recto-vaginal GBS colonization was 33.0%, 32.7%, 28.7% and 28.4% at 20-25 weeks, 26-30 weeks, 31-35 weeks and 37+ weeks of gestational age, respectively. The most common identified serotypes were Ia (39.2%), III (32.8%) and V (12.4%). The cumulative overall recto-vaginal acquisition rate of new serotypes during the study was 27.9%, including 11.2%, 8.2% and 4.3% for serotypes Ia, III and V, respectively. The recovery of GBS from rectal swabs was significantly higher from direct plating on chromogenic medium (p<0.0001) than from selective broth method. New-acquisition of GBS was inversely correlated with serotype-specific serum IgG concentration for serotype III (p=0.009) and OPA titer for serotype Ia and III (p<0.001 for both) at time of enrolment. Serum IgG concentration significantly associated with protection against recto-vaginal acquisition of the homotypic serotype was ≥1 μg/ml for serotype V (p=0.039), ≥3 μg/ml for serotype Ia (p=0.043) and III (p=0.023). Mucosal IgG correlated significantly with serum IgG with Rho values of 0.839, 0.621 and 0.426 (all p<0.001) for serotype Ia, III and V, respectively. The clearance of serotype-specific GBS recto-vaginal colonization during pregnancy was positively associated with presence of homotypic capsular ELISpot IFN-γ positivity for serotype III (p=0.008) Conclusion: Maternal GBS colonization could be used as end point to evaluate efficacy of GBS vaccine. A serotype-specific capsular polysaccharide based GBS vaccine able to elicit both humoral and cell-mediated capsular immune responses could confer protection against EOD by reducing the exposure of the newborn’s to GBS colonization during the peri-partum period.MT201

Investigation of Different Constituent Encoders in a Turbo-code Scheme for Reduced Decoder Complexity

A large number of papers have been published attempting to give some analytical basis for the performance of Turbo-codes. It has been shown that performance improves with increased interleaver length. Also procedures have been given to pick the best constituent recursive systematic convolutional codes (RSCC's). However testing by computer simulation is still required to verify these results. This thesis begins by describing the encoding and decoding schemes used. Next simulation results on several memory 4 RSCC's are shown. It is found that the best BER performance at low E(sub b)/N(sub o) is not given by the RSCC's that were found using the analytic techniques given so far. Next the results are given from simulations using a smaller memory RSCC for one of the constituent encoders. Significant reduction in decoding complexity is obtained with minimal loss in performance. Simulation results are then given for a rate 1/3 Turbo-code with the result that this code performed as well as a rate 1/2 Turbo-code as measured by the distance from their respective Shannon limits. Finally the results of simulations where an inaccurate noise variance measurement was used are given. From this it was observed that Turbo-decoding is fairly stable with regard to noise variance measurement

Analysis of different paddy transplanting methods in northern India: Ergo - economical study

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) production constitutes the major economic activity and a key source of employment for the rural population of India. Manual transplanting of paddy in puddle field is a very tedious job and involves lot of fatigue and drudgery. To reduce the labour demand and time consumption, power operated transplanters are also available but the poor socio- economic conditions of Indian farmers restrict them to adopt modern technology. Keeping this in view, the present study was planned to compare the economic cost and the rate of human drudgery among female farm workers, during manual hand transplanting with the power operated eight- row paddy transplanter. For the ergonomical evaluation, twenty female subjects were selected in the age group of 20- 55 years. Physiological parameters like HR, energy expenditure, TCCW and PCW etc. were measured in different transplanting operations. The mean value of working heart rate was assessed to be maximum 138.32±7.67 beats/ min in manual hand transplanting and 110.12±5.79 beats/min in eight- row paddy transplanter. The energy expenditure rate was measured 18.40±0.95 kJ/min in local transplanting method and reduced to 15.17±1.68 kJ/min with paddy transplanter. TCCW was found to be 1965.5±63.66 beats for manual transplanting of paddy and 770.58±39.93 beats by the use of paddy transplanter whereas the PCW was calculated 227.98±22.17 in traditional method and 85.23±2.64 in improved method. The economic cost of mechanized transplanting was 47% less than conventional method

Galois Cohomology for Lubin-Tate (φq,ΓLT)(\varphi_q,\Gamma_{LT})-modules over Coefficient rings

The classification of the local Galois representations using $(\varphi,\Gamma)$-modules by Fontaine has been generalized by Kisin and Ren over the Lubin-Tate extensions of local fields using the theory of $(\varphi_q,\Gamma_{LT})$-modules. In this paper, we extend the work of (Fontaine) Herr by introducing a complex which allows us to compute cohomology over the Lubin-Tate extensions and compare it with the Galois cohomology groups. We further extend that complex to include certain non-abelian extensions. We then deduce some relations of this cohomology with those arising from $(\psi_q,\Gamma_{LT})$-modules. We also compute the Iwasawa cohomology over the Lubin-Tate extensions in terms of $\psi_q$-operator acting on the \'{e}tale $(\varphi_q,\Gamma_{LT})$-module attached to the local Galois representation. Moreover, we generalize the notion of $(\varphi_q,\Gamma_{LT})$-modules over the coefficient ring $R$ and show that the equivalence given by Kisin and Ren extends to the Galois representations over $R$. This equivalence allows us to generalize our results to the case of coefficient rings.Comment: New sections have been adde