Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Artificial respiration – New Zealand'

The New Zealand freshwater crayfish P. zealandicus emerges from water and exposes it's respiratory surface to desiccation and collapse, it's haemolymph to acid-base disturbance and it's tissues to hypoxia. This study was to investigate the respiratory system during aerial respiration. P. zealandicus has 20 gills, a rudimentary gill and an epipodite (20 + r + ep). Two types of gill filament were identified; a respiratory filament with a cuticle 0.7µm thick, an afferent and efferent vessel and haemolymph lacunae adjacent to the cuticle, and an ion regulating filament with a cuticle 1.2µm thick in which the cells adjacent to the cuticle contain all the organelles and membranes which are associated with ion regulating tissues. It was found that P. zealandicus emerged from the water voluntarily. There was no significant difference in the frequency of emersion by solo crayfish at 18°C, crayfish pairs at 18°C, solo crayfish experiencing hypoxia at l8°C, and solo crayfish at 24°C. Solo crayfish and crayfish pairs recorded a significantly higher level of emersion activity at night than during the daytime. At 15°C the settled rate of oxygen consumption in air, 1.03± 0.03 µmol.g-1 .h-1 (± 1 sem), was not significantly different from the settled rate of oxygen consumption in water, 1.10± 0.03 µmol. g-1. h-1. Oxygen consumption in water was compromised by declining external oxygen tension below PCR1T (41 - 44 Torr). At PCR1T the oxygen consumption was 1.06 ± 0.05 /lffi01.g-1 .h-1 At only one time in 48 hours aerial respiration was haemo1ymph arterial oxygen tension below PCRIT .This was after 12 hours aerial respiration, and was associated with an increase in lactate concentration to 5 mmol.1-1 , which was, however, removed during the subsequent 12 hours aerial respiration. The crayfish were not considered to be experiencing internal hypoxia for the remainder of the 48 hours in air. The total oxygen consumed during 8 hours recovering from aerial respiration was similar to the total oxygen consumed during the 8 hours settling at the beginning of the experiment, indicating no measurable oxygen debt accumulated during 48 hours aerial respiration. After emersion into air the crayfish experienced a respiratory acidosis, and an elevated arterial carbon-dioxide tension. Total haemolymph carbonates, measured 12 hours after emerging from water indicated compensation by metabolic alkalosis. Upon returning to the water the crayfish experienced a respiratory alkalosis. Rapidly declining arterial carbon-dioxide tension, and total haemolymph carbonates indicated compensation by metabolic acidosis. The measured in vitro non-bicarbonate buffer capacity was -3.8 mmol.-1 . (pH unit)-1. During the 48 hours in air the pH was regulated between 7.55 and 7.68 with the pH significantly more alkaline at 8 pm than at 8 am, by 0.1 pH units. At 15°C, the solubility of oxygen in haemolymph, ±PLASMAO2, was 1.8 µmol.1-1.Torr-1, and at an oxygen tension of 150 Torr the total haemolymph oxygen content was 1 mmol.1-1. There was a Bohr effect, ΔlogP50/ΔpH, of - 0.48 to - ,0.96. Settled in water at 15°C, with a haemolymph carbon-dioxide tension of 2.6 Torr, the crayfish haemocyanin was 50 % saturated at an oxygen tension of 12 Torr. Crayfish kept at 15°C had an oxygen content when the haemocyanin was 50 % saturated, and a total oxygen content, which were 50 % higher than crayfish from water at 9.5°C. Estimates of limitation to diffusion/perfusion, Ldiff, in water of 0.76, and in air of 0.98, indicate that respiration in P. zealandicus is diffusion limited. The respiratory frequency, fR, and heart frequency, fH, of settled crayfish in air was not significantly different from settled crayfish in water. The fH during aerial respiration demonstrated less fluctuation than fH in control crayfish in water, and the fR of crayfish in air was more variable than the fR in control crayfish in water. The control crayfish settled in water exhibited a significant diel fluctuation in fR and fH, with high fR and fH recorded in the evening and low fR and fH in the morning. Several activities and changes measured in this study have a diel rhythm. A dusk pH recorded at 8 pm. was 0.1 pH units more alkaline than a dawn pH recorded at 8 am. Settled in water, P. zealandicus exhibits a diel fluctuation in fR and fH, with high fR and fH recorded in the evening and low fR and fH in the morning. At 18°C, solitary crayfish and crayfish pairs show higher levels of emersion activity at night than during the daytime. The results indicate that crayfish P. zealandicus has a respiratory system which can cope with aerial respiration, and some of the activities and changes reported in this study have a diel rhythm.

Global temperatures are expected to increase by 1.1 to 6.4°C over the next century and, over the same period, nitrogen inputs to terrestrial ecosystems are expected to increase as a result of increased crop fertilisation and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Both of these global change drivers are expected to affect net carbon balance by increasing both gross primary production and ecosystem respiration, yet the balance between these processes, and the potential interactive effects of the drivers, require quantification. The ability to accurately predict the effects of warming and nitrogen addition on all components of terrestrial carbon balance will be critical in determining the likely positive feedback to rising atmospheric CO₂ from terrestrial ecosystems. Tussock grasslands are a widespread and important carbon store within New Zealand and are representative of temperate grasslands worldwide. This thesis addresses the question: Will tussock grasslands act as a positive feedback to rising atmospheric CO₂ concentration in response to soil warming and nitrogen addition? Using a combination of controlled-environment and field-scale studies of tussock grassland, net ecosystem carbon exchange was partitioned into gross primary production, ecosystem respiration and the autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration. Soil respiration in the field increased by 41% in response to a 3°C soil warming treatment and by 12% in response to a 50 kg N ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ nitrogen addition treatment. Only warming resulted in enhanced heterotrophic decomposition of soil organic matter (37% increase). However, a controlled-environment study indicated that caution must be used when interpreting temperature responses of heterotrophic respiration from root-free soils, as priming effects were shown to decrease the sensitivity of heterotrophic respiration to temperature. Measurements of net ecosystem exchange in the field showed that warming-enhanced heterotrophic respiration lead to a significant 49 g m⁻² reduction in net ecosystem carbon uptake. Neither nitrogen addition nor combined warming and nitrogen addition treatment resulted in significant changes in net ecosystem carbon balance. These results suggest that tussock grasslands will act as a positive feedback to rising atmospheric CO₂ concentration. However, increased nitrogen deposition will serve as a potential mitigating factor for climate driven feedbacks.

Non-indigenous species have become a global issue of increasing importance in recent years, with many causing significant environmental and economic damage. Identifying locations vulnerable to invasion allows for focus of management efforts towards prevention of invasions at those locations. In order to determine whether constructed water bodies, such as reservoirs, ornamental lakes or retired mines, are more easily invaded environments than natural water bodies, owing to decreased biotic resistance, the distributions of native and non-indigenous freshwater calanoid copepod species in the North Island were examined. Calanoid copepods in ports and other coastal environments were also examined, in order to determine whether ports are more frequently invaded owing to increased propagule supplies from visiting ships and other sources. The distributions of the native freshwater calanoid copepod species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua, B. delicata and B. tanea are confined in the North Island of New Zealand to specific technostratigraphic terranes when natural waters only are examined, and as such each species can be considered to have a native range. The recently colonised calanoid copepod species Boeckella minuta (6 locations), Skistodiaptomus pallidus (3 locations) and Sinodiaptomus valkanovi (2 locations) are to date confined to constructed water bodies. Boeckella symmetrica (2 locations) may be confined to constructed water bodies, but the status of one location is unclear. Boeckella triarticulata, a species common in the South Island, is known only from a single farm dam in the North Island. The native species Boeckella hamata, B. propinqua and B. delicata were found to occur in constructed waters, but only B. propinqua was found in constructed water bodies outside their natural ranges (9 locations). Calamoecia lucasi is found in lakes throughout most of the North Island, and is not confined to any one terrane. My results indicate that constructed water bodies are more easily invaded by non-indigenous species than natural water bodies, represents a potential pathway for future invaders to establish, and provides locations for species to spread. In order to determine whether recently established freshwater calanoid copepod species have the potential to spread from their present habitats into other water bodies, the prosomal lengths of non-indigenous calanoid copepod species were measured and compared with those for native species. The results suggest that dietary overlap should prevent the non-indigenous species present to date from spreading into any water bodies with established Boeckella populations, although Sinodiaptomus valkanovi and Boeckella triarticulata could potentially spread to lakes containing only Calamoecia lucasi. Data on the co-occurrences of native freshwater calanoid copepod species support the theory of dietary exclusion, as Boeckella species have not been found to coexist. In order to test whether New Zealand marine environments have been invaded by non-indigenous calanoid copepods, and whether ports have been more regularly invaded than non-port areas, calanoid copepods were sampled from various coastal locations around the North Island. With the possible exception of Sulcanus conflictus, no non-indigenous species were found, indicating that non-indigenous marine calanoid copepod species are not establishing in New Zealand despite a history of invasion elsewhere.

Individuals of the cnidarian genus Physalia are a common sight at New Zealand beaches and are the primary cause of jellyfish stings to beachgoers each year. The identity of the species and the environmental factors that determine its presence are unknown. Lack of knowledge of many marine species is not unusual, as pelagic invertebrates often lack detailed taxonomic descriptions as well as information about their dispersal mechanisms such that meaningful patterns of distribution and dispersal are almost impossible to determine. Molecular systematics has proven to be a powerful tool for species identification and for determining geographical distributions. However, other techniques are needed to indicate the causal mechanisms that may result in a particular species distribution. The aim of this study was to apply molecular techniques to the cnidarian genus Physalia to establish which species occur in coastal New Zealand, and to apply models to attempt to forecast its occurrence and infer some mechanisms of dispersal. Physalia specimens were collected from New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii and sequenced for Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and the Internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1). Three clans were found: a Pacific-wide clan, an Australasian clan and New Zealand endemic clan with a distribution confined to the Bay of Plenty and the East Coast of the North Island. Forecasting Physalia occurrence directly from presence data using artificial neural networks (ANN) proved unsuccessful and it was necessary to pre-process the presence data using a variable sliding window to reduce noise and improve accuracy. This modelling approach outperformed the time lagged based networks giving improved forecasts in both regions that were assessed. The ANN models were able to indicated significant trends in the data but would require more data at higher resolution to give more accurate forecasts of Physalia occurrence suitable for decision making on New Zealand beaches. To determine possible causal mechanisms of recorded occurrences and to identify possible origins of Physalia the presence and absence of Physalia on swimming beaches throughout the summer season was modelled using ANN and Naϊve Bayesian Classifier (NBC). Both models were trained on the same data consisting of oceanographic variables. The modelling carried out in this study detected two dynamic systems, which matched the distribution of the molecular clans. One system was centralised in the Bay of Plenty matching the New Zealand endemic clan. The other involved a dynamic system that encompassed four other regions on both coasts of the country that matched the distribution of the other clans. By combining the results it was possible to propose a framework for Physalia distribution including a mechanism that has driven clan divergence. Moreover, potential blooming areas that are notoriously hard to establish for jellyfish were hypothesised for further study and/or validation.

To refine our knowledge and to adequately test hypotheses concerning theoretical and applied aspects of invasion biology, successful and unsuccessful invaders should be compared. This study investigated insect establishment patterns by comparing the climatic preferences and biological attributes of two groups of polyphagous insect species that are constantly intercepted at New Zealand's border. One group of species is established in New Zealand (n = 15), the other group comprised species that are not established (n = 21). In the present study the two groups were considered to represent successful and unsuccessful invaders. To provide background for interpretation of results of the comparative analysis, global areas that are climatically analogous to sites in New Zealand were identified by an eco-climatic assessment model, CLIMEX, to determine possible sources of insect pest invasion. It was found that south east Australia is one of the regions that are climatically very similar to New Zealand. Furthermore, New Zealand shares 90% of its insect pest species with that region. South east Australia has close trade and tourism links with New Zealand and because of its proximity a new incursion in that analogous climate should alert biosecurity authorities in New Zealand. Other regions in western Europe and the east coast of the United States are also climatically similar and share a high proportion of pest species with New Zealand. Principal component analysis was used to investigate patterns in insect global distributions of the two groups of species in relation to climate. Climate variables were reduced to temperature and moisture based principal components defining four climate regions, that were identified in the present study as, warm/dry, warm/wet, cool/dry and cool/moist. Most of the insect species established in New Zealand had a wide distribution in all four climate regions defined by the principal components and their global distributions overlapped into the cool/moist, temperate climate where all the New Zealand sites belong. The insect species that have not established in New Zealand had narrow distributions within the warm/wet, tropical climates. Discriminant analysis was then used to identify which climate variables best discriminate between species presence/absence at a site in relation to climate. The discriminant analysis classified the presence and absence of most insect species significantly better than chance. Late spring and early summer temperatures correctly classified a high proportion of sites where many insect species were present. Soil moisture and winter rainfall were less effective discriminating the presence of the insect species studied here. Biological attributes were compared between the two groups of species. It was found that the species established in New Zealand had a significantly wider host plant range than species that have not established. The lower developmental threshold temperature was on average, 4°C lower for established species compared with non-established species. These data suggest that species that establish well in New Zealand have a wide host range and can tolerate lower temperatures compared with those that have not established. No firm conclusions could be drawn about the importance of propagule pressure, body size, fecundity or phylogeny for successful establishment because data availability constrained sample sizes and the data were highly variable. The predictive capacity of a new tool that has potential for eco-climatic assessment, the artificial neural network (ANN), was compared with other well used models. Using climate variables as predictors, artificial neural network predictions were compared with binary logistic regression and CLIMEX. Using bootstrapping, artificial neural networks predicted insect presence and absence significantly better than the binary logistic regression model. When model prediction success was assessed by the kappa statistic there were also significant differences in prediction performance between the two groups of study insects. For established species, the models were able to provide predictions that were in moderate agreement with the observed data. For non-established species, model predictions were on average only slightly better than chance. The predictions of CLIMEX and artificial neural networks when given novel data, were difficult to compare because both models have different theoretical bases and different climate databases. However, it is clear that both models have potential to give insights into invasive species distributions. Finally the results of the studies in this thesis were drawn together to provide a framework for a prototype pest risk assessment decision support system. Future research is needed to refine the analyses and models that are the components of this system.

Artificial retreats are increasingly used to sample animal populations and in attempts to boost animal numbers in degraded habitats. Here, I test potential applications of artificial retreats for lizards inhabiting a coastal environment of high conservation value (Kaitorete Spit, New Zealand). I first conducted a pitfall-trapping survey examining the distribution and relative abundance of lizards in duneland, farmland and shrubland habitats, and tested the influence of trap placement on capture rates. Capture rates of the diurnal skinks Oligosoma maccanni (McCann�s skink) and O. nigriplantare polychroma (common skink) were highest in duneland and farmland, respectively, and were most sensitive to the distance separating traps from the nearest cover (the greater the distance, the lower the capture rate). Captures of O. lineoocellatum (spotted skink) and Hoplodactylus maculatus (common gecko) were rare. Secondly, in separate chapters I test the utility of artificial retreats for monitoring: 1) a preference trial examining relative use of three types of artificial retreats by skinks (O. maccanni and O. n. polychroma) and geckos (H. maculatus); 2) a comparison of the effectiveness of artificial retreats relative to pitfall traps for detecting cryptic and primarily nocturnal geckos (H. maculatus) following translocation; and 3) capture-recapture estimation of population parameters (survival and abundance) of H. maculatus. I found that: 1) geckos strongly preferred retreats made of Onduline over corrugated iron and concrete tiles, whereas skinks exhibited no apparent preferences; 2) artificial retreats were more effective than pitfall traps for detecting geckos following translocation; and 3) monthly survival and recapture probabilities of geckos varied with age-class and over time. Estimated survival was unexpectedly low, possibly due to excessive trap spacing. I developed a new capture-recapture model specifically for population size estimation with data from artificial retreats, which gave estimates that were up to 50% greater than those predicted by conventional capture-recapture models. I caution that permanent placement of artificial retreats in long-term studies may be inappropriate for estimation of population parameters due to potential habitat-enhancement effects and/or altered predation risk. Thirdly, I conducted a capture-recapture field experiment, using a replicated Before-After-Control-impact (BACI) design, to test the relative effects of habitat manipulation (artificial retreat addition) and partial predator removal (by fencing) on annual survival of duneland skink (O. maccanni) populations. Survival increased at sites with predator exclosures, but not at control sites or following the addition of artificial retreats, either alone or in combination with a predator exclosure. The magnitude of the increase in survival for the exclosure-only treatment was small, but sufficient to change the trajectory of an apparently stable population into an increasing one, suggesting that the population is limited by predators. Predator control, but not the addition of artificial retreats, is predicted to benefit O. maccanni. To conclude, the Onduline design developed here appears to be particularly useful for sampling cryptic, terrestrial geckos; however, artificial retreats must be used appropriately to avoid bias arising from habitat-enhancing effects and/or altered predation risk. The restoration value of artificial retreats requires further testing on other species and in areas where natural retreat sites are limited.

The proliferation of robots in industry and every day human life is gaining momentum. After the initial few decades of employment of robots in the industry, especially the automotive assembly plants, robots are now entering the home and offices. From being pick-and-place manipulators, robots are slowly being transformed in shape and form to be more anthropomorphic. The wheeled robots are however here to stay for the foreseeable future until such time as artificial muscles, and efficient means to control them, are well developed. The next phase of development of robots will be for the service industry. Robots will cooperate with each other to accomplish collaborative tasks to aid human life. They will also collaborate with human beings to assist them in doing tasks such as lifting loads and moving objects. At the same time, with the advancement of hardware, robots are becoming very fast and are capable of being programmed with more intelligence. Coupled with this is the availability of sophisticated sensors with which the robots can perceive the real world around them. Combinations of these factors have created many challenging areas of research. Several factors affect the performance of robots in a dynamic collaborative environment. The research presented in this thesis has identified the major contributing factors, namely fast vision processing, behaviour programming, predictive movement and interception control, and precise motion control, that collectively have influence on the performance of robots which are engaged in a collaborative effort to accomplish a task. Several novel techniques have been proposed in this thesis to enhance the collective performance of collaborating robots. In many systems, vision is used as one of the sensory inputs for the robot’s perception of the environment. This thesis describes a new colour space and the use of discrete look-up-tables (LUT) for very fast and robust colour segmentation and real-time identification of objects in the robot’s work space. A distributed camera system and a stereo vision using a single camera are reported. Advanced filtering has been applied to the vision data for predictive identification of the position and orientation of moving robots and targets, and for anticipatory interception control. Collaborative tasks are generally complex and robots need to be capable of exhibiting sophisticated behaviours. This thesis has detailed the use of State Transition Based Control (STBC) methodology to build a hierarchy of complex behaviour. Behaviour of robots in a robot soccer game and features such as role selection and obstacle avoidance have been built using STBC. A novel methodology for advanced control of fast robots is detailed. The algorithm uses a combination of Triangular Targeting Algorithm (TTA) and Proximity Positioning Algorithm (PPA) to position a robot behind an object aligned with a target. Various forms of velocity profiling have been proposed and validated with substantial test results. The thesis ends by looking at future scenarios where robots and human beings will coexist and work together to do many collaborative tasks. Anthropomorphic robots will be more prevalent in future and teleoperation will gain momentum. Throughout the thesis, the engineering applicability of proposed algorithms and architectures have been emphasised by testing on real robots.

Each year, the world’s top orange producers output millions of oranges for human consumption. This production is projected to grow by as much as 64 million in 2010 and so the demand for fast, low-cost and precise automated orange fruit grading systems is only deemed to become more increasingly important. There is however an underlying limit to most orange blemish detection algorithms. Most existing statistical-based, structural-based, model-based and transform-based orange blemish detection algorithms are plagued by the following problem: any pixels in an image of an orange having about the same magnitudes for the red, green and blue channels will almost always be classified as belonging to the same category (either a blemish or not). This however presents a big problem as the RGB components of the pixels corresponding to blemishes are very similar to pixels near the boundary of an orange. In light of this problem, this research utilizes a priori knowledge of the local intensity variations observed on rounded convex objects to classify the ambiguous pixels correctly. The algorithm has the effect of peeling-off layers of the orange skin according to gradations of the intensity. Therefore, any abrupt discontinuities detected along successive layers would significantly help identifying skin blemishes more accurately. A commercial-grade fruit inspection and distribution system was used to collect 170 navel orange images. Of these images, 100 were manually classified as good oranges by human inspection and the rest are blemished ones. We demonstrate the efficacy of the algorithm using these images as the benchmarking test set. Our results show that the system garnered 96% correctly classified good oranges and 97% correctly classified blemished oranges. The proposed system is easily customizable as it does not require any training. The fruit quality bands can be adjusted to meet the requirements set by the market standards by specifying an agreeable percentage of blemishes for each band.

Implementing a real-time image-processing algorithm on a serial processor is difficult to achieve because such a processor cannot cope with the volume of data in the low-level operations. However, a parallel implementation, required to meet timing constraints for the low-level operations, results in low resource utilisation when implementing the high-level operations. These factors suggested a combination of parallel hardware, for the low-level operations, and a serial processor, for the high-level operations, for implementing a high-level image-processing algorithm. Several types of serial processors were available. A general-purpose processor requires an extensive instruction set to be able to execute any arbitrary algorithm resulting in a relatively complex instruction decoder and possibly extra FUs. An application-specific processor, which was considered in this research, implements enough FUs to execute a given algorithm and implements a simpler, and more efficient, instruction decoder. In addition, an algorithms behaviour on a processor could be represented in either hardware (i.e. hardwired logic), which limits the ability to modify the algorithm behaviour of a processor, or “software” (i.e. programmable logic), which enables external sources to specify the algorithm behaviour. This research investigated hardware- and software- controlled application-specific serial processors for the implementation of high-level image-processing algorithms and compared these against parallel hardware and general-purpose serial processors. It was found that application-specific processors are easily able to meet the timing constraints imposed by real-time high-level image processing. In addition, the software-controlled processors had additional flexibility, a performance penalty of 9.9% and 36.9% and inconclusive footprint savings (and costs) when compared to hardwarecontrolled processors.

This thesis presents a framework of test methodology to assess spatial domain compression artefacts produced by image and intra-frame coded video codecs. Few researchers have studied this broad range of artefacts. A taxonomy of image and video compression artefacts is proposed. This is based on the point of origin of the artefact in the image communication model. This thesis presents objective evaluation of distortions known as artefacts due to image and intra-frame coded video compression made using synthetic test patterns. The American National Standard Institute document ANSI T1 801 qualitatively defines blockiness, blur and ringing artefacts. These definitions have been augmented with quantitative definitions in conjunction with test patterns proposed. A test and measurement environment is proposed in which the codec under test is exercised using a portfolio of test patterns. The test patterns are designed to highlight the artefact under study. Algorithms have been developed to detect and measure individual artefacts based on the characteristics of respective artefacts. Since the spatial contents of the original test patterns form known structural details, the artefact distortion metrics based on the characteristics of those artefacts are clean and swift to calculate. Distortion metrics are validated using a human vision system inspired modern image quality metric. Blockiness, blur and ringing artefacts are evaluated for representative codecs using proposed synthetic test patterns. Colour bleeding due to image and video compression is discussed with both qualitative and quantitative definitions for the colour bleeding artefacts introduced. The image reproduction performance of a few codecs was evaluated to ascertain the utility of proposed metrics and test patterns.

Fusion Motion Capture (FMC), a wearable motion capture system was developed, and applied to the optimisation of athlete performance in alpine ski racing. In what may be a world first, the three-dimensional movements of a skilled athlete (with less than 20 FIS1 points) skiing through a complete training giant slalom racecourse were analysed. FMC consists of multiple light weight sensors attached to the athlete including inertial measurement units (IMUs), pressure sensitive insoles and a global position system (GPS) receiver. The IMUs contain accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. Limb orientation and location are obtained by mathematically combining the most reliable data from each sensor using fusion algorithms developed by the author. FMC fuses the signals from the IMUs and GPS without the need for the post filtering, usually applied to motion capture data, and therefore, maintains maximum bandwidth. The FMC results were stable and relatively independent of motion type and duration unlike other inertial systems available in 2005, when the research was initiated. Analysis of data collected from an athlete skiing giant slalom contradict the traditional „going straight turning short? race strategy. The shortest path may not always be the fastest. Instead each gate has a different optimum approach arc. Optimum turn radius increases with both increasing speed and increasing terrain slope. The results also contradict laboratory measurements of ski/snow sliding friction and suggest that snow resistance in giant slalom is of similar importance to wind drag. In addition to gravity, the athlete increased speed using the techniques of „lateral projection? and „pumping?. Race performance was determined from the analysis of the athlete skiing through the entire course. FMC proved, therefore, to be more suitable than traditional optical systems that are practically limited to capturing small sections of a race course. The athlete experienced high and rapidly fluctuating torques about all three axes of the lower joints. This information could be useful in designing training programmes racecourses and equipment to reduce knee injuries. Data driven animations and colour coded force vector diagrams were developed to enhance athlete feedback. Inline skating data was also analysed.

This thesis seeks to address current problems encountered when training classifiers within the framework of cascades of boosted ensembles (CoBE). At present, a signifi- cant challenge facing this framework are inordinate classifier training runtimes. In some cases, it can take days or weeks (Viola and Jones, 2004; Verschae et al., 2008) to train a classifier. The protracted training runtimes are an obstacle to the wider use of this framework (Brubaker et al., 2006). They also hinder the process of producing effective object detection applications and make the testing of new theories and algorithms, as well as verifications of others research, a considerable challenge (McCane and Novins, 2003). An additional shortcoming of the CoBE framework is its limited ability to train clas- sifiers incrementally. Presently, the most reliable method of integrating new dataset in- formation into an existing classifier, is to re-train a classifier from beginning using the combined new and old datasets. This process is inefficient. It lacks scalability and dis- cards valuable information learned in previous training. To deal with these challenges, this thesis extends on the research by Barczak et al. (2008), and presents alternative CoBE frameworks for training classifiers. The alterna- tive frameworks reduce training runtimes by an order of magnitude over common CoBE frameworks and introduce additional tractability to the process. They achieve this, while preserving the generalization ability of their classifiers. This research also introduces a new framework for incrementally training CoBE clas- sifiers and shows how this can be done without re-training classifiers from beginning. However, the incremental framework for CoBEs has some limitations. Although it is able to improve the positive detection rates of existing classifiers, currently it is unable to lower their false detection rates.

This research is mainly concerned with a robust method for improving the performance of a real-time speech enhancement and noise cancellation for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) in a real-time environment. Therefore, the thesis titled, “Real-time adaptive beamformer for Automatic speech Recognition in a car environment” presents an application technique of a beamforming method and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) method. In this thesis, a novel solution is presented to the question as below, namely: How can the driver’s voice control the car using ASR? The solution in this thesis is an ASR using a hybrid system with acoustic beamforming Voice Activity Detector (VAD) and an Adaptive Wiener Filter. The beamforming approach is based on a fundamental theory of normalized least-mean squares (NLMS) to improve Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The microphone has been implemented with a Voice Activity Detector (VAD) which uses time-delay estimation together with magnitude-squared coherence (MSC). An experiment clearly shows the ability of the composite system to reduce noise outside of a defined active zone. In real-time environments a speech recognition system in a car has to receive the driver’s voice only whilst suppressing background noise e.g. voice from radio. Therefore, this research presents a hybrid real-time adaptive filter which operates within a geometrical zone defined around the head of the desired speaker. Any sound outside of this zone is considered to be noise and suppressed. As this defined geometrical zone is small, it is assumed that only driver's speech is incoming from this zone. The technique uses three microphones to define a geometric based voice-activity detector (VAD) to cancel the unwanted speech coming from outside of the zone. In the case of a sole unwanted speech incoming from outside of a desired zone, this speech is muted at the output of the hybrid noise canceller. In case of an unwanted speech and a desired speech are incoming at the same time, the proposed VAD fails to identify the unwanted speech or desired speech. In such a situation an adaptive Wiener filter is switched on for noise reduction, where the SNR is improved by as much as 28dB. In order to identify the signal quality of the filtered signal from Wiener filter, a template matching speech recognition system that uses a Wiener filter is designed for testing. In this thesis, a commercial speech recognition system is also applied to test the proposed beamforming based noise cancellation and the adaptive Wiener filter.

Although the physical characteristics of surfing breaks are well described in the literature, there is little specific research on surfing and coastal management. Such research is required because coastal engineering has had significant impacts to surfing breaks, both positive and negative. Strategic planning and environmental impact assessment methods, a central tenet of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), are recommended by this thesis to maximise surfing amenities. The research reported here identifies key oceanographic considerations required for ICZM around surfing breaks including: surfing wave parameters; surfing break components; relationship between surfer skill, surfing manoeuvre type and wave parameters; wind effects on waves; currents; geomorphic surfing break categorisation; beach-state and morphology; and offshore wave transformations. Key coastal activities that can have impacts to surfing breaks are identified. Environmental data types to consider during coastal studies around surfing breaks are presented and geographic information systems (GIS) are used to manage and interpret such information. To monitor surfing breaks, a shallow water multibeam echo sounding system was utilised and a RTK GPS water level correction and hydrographic GIS methodology developed. Including surfing in coastal management requires coastal engineering solutions that incorporate surfing. As an example, the efficacy of the artificial surfing reef (ASR) at Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, was evaluated. GIS, multibeam echo soundings, oceanographic measurements, photography, and wave modelling were all applied to monitor sea floor morphology around the reef. Results showed that the beach-state has more cellular circulation since the reef was installed, and a groin effect on the offshore bar was caused by the structure within the monitoring period, trapping sediment updrift and eroding sediment downdrift. No identifiable shoreline salient was observed. Landward of the reef, a scour hole ~3 times the surface area of the reef has formed. The current literature on ASRs has primarily focused on reef shape and its role in creating surfing waves. However, this study suggests that impacts to the offshore bar, beach-state, scour hole and surf zone hydrodynamics should all be included in future surfing reef designs. More real world reef studies, including ongoing monitoring of existing surfing reefs are required to validate theoretical concepts in the published literature.

The quality of Machine Translation (MT) can often be poor due to it appearing incoherent and lacking in fluency. These problems consist of word ordering, awkward use of words and grammar, and translating text too literally. However we should not consider translations such as these failures until we have done our best to enhance their quality, or more simply, their fluency. In the same way various processes can be applied to touch up a photograph, various processes can also be applied to touch up a translation. This research outlines the improvement of MT quality through the application of Fluency Enhancement (FE), which is a process we have created that reforms and evaluates text to enhance its fluency. We have tested our FE process on our own MT system which operates on what we call the SAM fundamentals, which are as follows: Simplicity - to be simple in design in order to be portable across different languages pairs, Adaptability - to compensate for the evolution of language, and Multiplicity - to determine a final set of translations from as many candidate translations as possible. Based on our research, the SAM fundamentals are the key to developing a successful MT system, and are what have piloted the success of our FE process.

This research work is focused on understanding the effects of inhomogeneity on traffic flow by theoretical analysis and computer simulations. Traffic has been observed at almost all levels of natural and manmade systems (e.g., from microscopic protein motors to macroscopic objects like cars). For these various traffic, basic and emer- gent phenomena, modelling methods, theoretical analysis and physical meanings are normally concerned. Inhomogeneity like bottlenecks may cause traffic congestions or motor protein crowding. The crowded protein motors may lead to some human diseases. The congested traffic patterns have not been understood well so far. The modelling method in this research is based on totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP). The following TASEP models are developed: TASEP with single inhomogeneity, TASEP with zoned inhomogeneity, TASEP with junction, TASEP with site sharing and different boundary conditions. These models are motivated by vehicular traffic, pedestrian trafficc, ant traffic, protein motor traffic and/or Internet traffic. Theoretical solutions for the proposed models are obtained and verified by Monte Carlo simulations. These theoretical results can be used as a base for further developments. The emergent properties such as phase transitions, phase separations and spontaneous symmetry breaking are observed and discussed. This study has contributed to a deeper understanding of generic traffic dynamics, particularly, in the presence of inhomogeneity, and has important implications for explanation or guidance of future traffic studies.

As computers have become more and more advanced, with even the most basic computer capable of tasks almost unimaginable only a decade ago, researchers and developers are focusing on improving the way that computers interact with people in their everyday lives. A core goal, therefore, is to develop a computer system which can understand and react appropriately to natural human behavior. A key requirement for such a system is the ability to automatically, and in real time, recognises human facial expressions. In addition, this must be successfully achieved regardless of the inherent differences in human faces or variations in lighting and other external conditions. The focus of this research was to develop such a system by evaluating and then utilizing the most appropriate of the many image processing techniques currently available, and, where appropriate, developing new methodologies and algorithms. The first key step in the system is to recognise a human face with acceptable levels of misses and false positives. This research analysed and evaluated a number of different face detection techniques, before developing a novel algorithm which combined phase congruency and template matching techniques. This novel algorithm provides key advantages over existing techniques because it can detect faces rotated to any angle, and it works in real time. Existing techniques could only recognise faces which were rotated less than 10 degrees (in either direction) and most could not work in real time due to excessive computational power requirements. The next step for the system is to enhance and extract the facial features. To successfully achieve the stated goal, the enhancement and extraction of the facial features must reduce the number of facial dimensions to ensure the system can operate in real time, as well as providing sufficient clear and detailed features to allow the facial expressions to be accurately recognised. This part of the system was successfully completed by developing a novel algorithm based on the existing Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization technique which quickly and accurately represents facial features, and developing another novel algorithm which reduces the number of feature dimensions by combining radon transformation and fast Fourier transformation techniques, ensuring real time operation is possible. The final step for the system is to use the information provided by the first two steps to accurately recognise facial expressions. This is achieved using an SVM trained using a database including both real and computer generated facial images with various facial expressions. The system developed during this research can be utilised in a number of ways, and, most significantly, has the potential to revolutionise future interactions between humans and computers by assisting these reactions to become natural and intuitive. In addition, individual components of the system also have significant potential, with, for example, the algorithms which allow the recognition of an object regardless of its rotation under consideration as part of a project aiming to achieve non-invasive detection of early stage cancer cells.

Digital colour cameras are dramatically falling in price, making them a ordable for ubiquitous appliances in many applications. Change in colour perception with changing light conditions induce errors that may escape a user's awareness. Colour constancy algorithms are based on inferring light properties (usually the white point) to correct colour. Other attempts using more data for colour correction such as (ICC based) colour management characterise a capturing device under given conditions through an input device pro le. This pro le can be applied to correct for deviating colour perception. But this pro le is only valid for the speci c conditions at the time of the characterisation, but fails with changes in light. This research presents a solution to the problem of long time observations with changes in the scene's illumination for common natural (overcast or clear, blue sky) and arti cial sources (incandescent or uorescent lamps). Colour measurements for colour based reasoning need to be represented in a robustly de ned way. One such suitable and well de ned description is given by the CIE LAB colour space, a device-independent, visually linearised colour description. Colour transformations using ICC pro le are also based on CIE colour descriptions. Therefore, also the corrective colour processing has been based on ICC based colour management. To verify the viability of CIE LAB based corrective colour processing colour constancy algorithms (White Patch Retinex and Grey World Assumption) have been modi ed to operate on L a b colour tuples. Results were compared visually and numerically (using colour indexing) against those using the same algorithms operating on RGB colour tuples. We can take advantage of the fact that we are dealing with image streams over time, adding another dimension usable for analysis. A solution to the problem of slowly changing light conditions in scenes with a static camera perspective is presented. It takes advantage of the small (frame-to-frame) changes in appearance of colour within the scene over time. Reoccurring objects or (background) areas of the scene are tracked to gather data points for an analysis. As a result, a suitable colour space distortion model has been devised through a rst order Taylor approximation (a ne transformation). By performing a multidimensional linear regression analysis on the tracked data points, parameterisations for the a ne transformations were derived. Finally, the device pro le is updated by amalgamating the corrections from the model into the ICC pro le for a single, comprehensive transformation. Following applications of the ICC based colour pro les are very fast and can be used in real-time with the camera's capturing frame rate (for current normal web cameras and low spec desktop computers). As light conditions usually change on a much slower time scale than the capturing rate of a camera, the computationally expensive pro le adaptation generally showed to be usable for many frames. The goal was to set out and nd a solution for consistent colour capturing using digital cameras, which is capable of coping with changing light conditions. Theoretical backgrounds and strategies for such a system have been devised and implemented successfully.

This thesis studies rapid object detection, focusing on feature-based methods. Firstly, modifications of training and detection of the Viola-Jones method are made to improve performance and overcome some of the current limitations such as rotation, occlusion and articulation. New classifiers produced by training and by converting existing classifiers are tested in face detection and hand detection. Secondly, the nature of invariant features in terms of the computational complexity, discrimination power and invariance to rotation and scaling are discussed. A new feature extraction method called Concentric Discs Moment Invariants (CDMI) is developed based on moment invariants and summed-area tables. The dimensionality of this set of features can be increased by using additional concentric discs, rather than using higher order moments. The CDMI set has useful properties, such as speed, rotation invariance, scaling invariance, and rapid contrast stretching can be easily implemented. The results of experiments with face detection shows a clear improvement in accuracy and performance of the CDMI method compared to the standard moment invariants method. Both the CDMI and its variant, using central moments from concentric squares, are used to assess the strength of the method applied to hand-written digits recognition. Finally, the parallelisation of the detection algorithm is discussed. A new model for the specific case of the Viola-Jones method is proposed and tested experimentally. This model takes advantage of the structure of classifiers and of the multi-resolution approach associated with the detection method. The model shows that high speedups can be achieved by broadcasting frames and carrying out the computation of one or more cascades in each node.

This thesis presents a complete self-calibrating illumination intensity-invariant colour classification system. We extend a novel fuzzy colour processing tech- nique called Fuzzy Colour Contrast Fusion (FCCF) by combining it with a Heuristic- assisted Genetic Algorithm (HAGA) for automatic fine-tuning of colour descriptors. Furthermore, we have improved FCCF’s efficiency by processing colour channels at varying colour depths in search for the optimal ones. In line with this, we intro- duce a reduced colour depth representation of a colour image while maintaining efficient colour sensitivity that suffices for accurate real-time colour-based object recognition. We call the algorithm Variable Colour Depth (VCD) and we propose a technique for building and searching a VCD look-up table (LUT). The first part of this work investigates the effects of applying fuzzy colour contrast rules to vary- ing colour depths as we extract the optimal rule combination for any given target colour exposed under changing illumination intensities. The second part introduces the HAGA-based parameter-optimisation for automatically constructing accurate colour classifiers. Our results show that for all cases, the VCD algorithm, combined with HAGA for parameter optimisation improve colour classification via a pie-slice colour classifier.For 6 different target colours, the hybrid algorithm was able to yield 17.63% higher overall accuracy as compared to the pure fuzzy approach. Fur- thermore, it was able to reduce LUT storage space by 78.06% as compared to the full-colour depth LUT.

The last decade has been a period of great expansion and land use intensification for the New Zealand dairy farming industry with a 44% increase in national dairy cow numbers. Intensive dairy farming is now considered to be a major contributor to the deterioration in the quality of surface and ground water resources in some regions of New Zealand. Previous research has demonstrated intensive dairy farming is responsible for accelerated contamination of wateways by nutrients, suspended solids, pathogenic organisms and faecal material. A number of common dairy farming practices increase the risk of nutrient leaching. In particular, farm dairy effluent (FDE) has been implicated as a major contributor to the degradation of water quality. With the introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991, the preferred treatment for FDE shifted away from traditional two-pond systems to land application. However, on most farms, irrigation of FDE has occurred on a daily basis, often without regard for soil moisture status. Therefore, it has been commonplace for partially treated effluent to drain through and/or runoff soils and contaminate fresh water bodies. The objectives of this thesis were to design and implement a sustainable land application system for FDE on difficult to manage, mole and pipe drained soils, and to assess the impacts of FDE application, urea application and cattle grazing events on nutrient losses via artificial drainage and surface runoff from dairy cattle grazed pasture. To meet these objectives a research field site was established on Massey University's No.4 Dairy farm near Palmerston North. The soil type was Tokomaru silt loam, a Fragiaqualf with poor natural drainage. Eight experimental plots (each 40 x 40 m) were established with two treatments. Four of the plots represented standard farm practice including grazing and fertiliser regimes. Another four plots were subjected to the same farm practices but without the fertiliser application and they were also irrigated with FDE. Each plot had an isolated mole and pipe drainage system. Four surface runoff plots (each 5 m x 10 m) were established as subplots (two on the fertilised plots and two on the plots irrigated with FDE) in the final year of the study. Plots were instrumented to allow the continuous monitoring of drainage and surface runoff and the collection of water samples for nutrient analyses. An application of 25 mm of FDE to a soil with limited soil water deficit - simulating a 'daily' irrigation regime - resulted in considerable drainage of partially treated FDE. Approximately 70% of the applied FDE left the experimental plots with 10 mm of drainage and 8 mm of surface runoff. The resulting concentrations of N and P in drainage and runoff were approximately 45% and 80% of the original concentrations in the applied FDE, respectively. From this single irrigation event, a total of 12.1 kg N ha-1 and 1.9 kg P ha-1 was lost to surface water representing 45% of expected annual N loss and 100% of expected annual P loss. An improved system for applying farm dairy effluent to land called 'deferred irrigation' was successfully developed and implemented at the research site. Deferred irrigation involves the storage of effluent in a two-pond system during periods of small soil moisture deficits and the scheduling of irrigation at times of suitable soil water deficits. Deferred irrigation of FDE all but eliminated direct drainage losses with on average <1 % of the volume of effluent and nutrients applied leaving the experimental plots. Adopting an approach of applying 'little and often' resulted in no drainage and, therefore, zero direct loss of nutrients applied. A modelling exercise, using the APSlM simulation model, was conducted to study the feasibility of practising deferred irrigation at the farm scale on No 4 Dairy farm. Using climate data for the past 30 years, this simulation exercise demonstrated that applying small application depths of FDE, such as 15 mm or less, provided the ability to schedule irrigations earlier in spring and decreased the required effluent storage capacity. A travelling irrigator, commonly used to apply FDE (a rotating irrigator), was found to have 2-3 fold differences in application depth and increased the risk of generating FDE contaminated drainage. New irrigator technology (an oscillating travelling irrigator) provided a more uniform application pattern allowing greater confidence that an irrigation depth less than the soil water deficit could be applied. This allowed a greater volume to be irrigated, whilst avoiding direct drainage of FDE when the soil moisture deficit is low in early spring and late autumn. A recommendation arising from this work is that during this period of low soil water deficits, all irrigators should be set to travel at their fastest speed (lowest application depth) to minimise the potential for direct drainage of partially treated FDE and associated nutrient losses. The average concentrations of N and P in both 2002 and 2003 winter mole and pipe drainage water from grazed dairy pastures were all well above the levels required to prevent aquatic weed growth in fresh water bodies. Total N losses from plots representing standard farm practice were 28 kg N ha-1 and 34 kg N ha-1 for 2003 and 2004, respectively. Total P losses in 2003 and 2004 were 0.35 kg P ha-1 and 0.7 kg P ha-1, respectively. Surface runoff was measured in 2003 and contributed a further 3.0 kg N ha-1and 0.6 kg P ha-1. A number of common dairy farm practices immediately increased the losses of N and P in the artificial drainage water. Recent grazing events increased NO3--N and DIP concentrations in drainage by approximately 5 mg litre-1 and 0.1 mg litre-1, respectively. The duration between the grazing and drainage events influenced the form of N loss due to a likely urine contribution when grazing and drainage coincide, but had little impact on the total quantity of N lost. Nitrogen loss from an early spring application of urea in 2002 was minimal, whilst a mid June application in 2003 resulted in an increased loss of NO3--N throughout 80 mm of cumulative drainage suggesting that careful timing of urea applications in winter is required to prevent unnecessary N leaching. Storage and deferred irrigation of FDE during the lactation season caused no real increase in either the total-N concentrations or total N losses in the winter drainage water of 2002 and 2003. In contrast, land application of FDE using the deferred irrigation system resulted in a gradual increase in total P losses over the 2002 and 2003 winter drainage seasons. However, this increase represents less than 4% of the P applied in FDE during the lactation season. An assessment of likely losses of nutrients at a whole-farm scale suggests that it is standard dairy farming practice (particularly intensive cattle grazing) that is responsible for the great majority of N and P loss at a farm scale. When expressed as a proportion of whole-farm losses, only a very small quantity of N is lost under an improved land treatment technique for FDE such as deferred irrigation. The management of FDE plays a greater role in the likely P loss at a farm scale with a 5% contribution to wholefarm P losses from deferred irrigation.