Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Scalar processor'

The work deals with main aspects of computer efficiency increase. Object of investigation is a system consisting of processor, memory, other components and connecting links called buses. Rather different systems are used in modern world of information, so an interest arises to compare architectures of several producers. Comparison of systems is quite possible as the same architectural features bind them together: processor‘s clock speed, cache, memory, dual channel technology and others. To perform a comparative analysis, software has been used enabling to reveal increase of efficiency of separate computer components. Systems chosen for study are rather new from the point of view of technology: Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon XP and AMD Sempron. Experiments having been fulfilled, it came out that efficiency of a system for the most part depends on processor capacity: increase of its clock speed results in 9 – 13%, L1 cache has an effect even up to 1350% (theoretically), L2 cache – 30 – 38%. HyperThreading has been observed to mostly result in operations with floating point numbers (even up to 68%), and branch prediction would have theoretically to increase efficiency up to 47%. Estimating indicator of efficiency of the whole system, the results show that the main role belongs to processor. Influence of other components of the system is less noticeable. Working peculiarities of memory type determine rate of data selection and transmission from memory. The study has shown that... [to full text]

The goal of this project was to study pipelined processor architectures along with instruction and data cache. Chosen pipelined architecture should be designed and implemented using VHDL language. Firstly, I decided to implement the subscalar architecture first, secondly, three versions of scalar architecture. For these architectures synthesis into FPGA was done and performance of these architectures was compared on chosen algorithm. In the next part of this thesis I designed and implemented instruction and data cache logic for both architectures. However I was not able to synthetise these caches. Last chapter of this thesis deals with the superscalar architecture, which is the architecture of nowadays.

Cette thèse se consacre à une analyse théorique puis numérique d'une certaine classe d'équations aux dérivées partielles stochastiques (EDPS) : les lois de conservation scalaires avec viscosité et avec un forçage aléatoire de type additif et bruit blanc en temps. Un exemple typique est l'équation de Burgers stochastique, motivée par la théorie de la turbulence. On s'intéresse particulièrement au comportement en temps long des solutions de ces équations à travers une étude des mesures invariantes. La partie théorique de la thèse constitue le chapitre 2. Dans ce chapitre, on prouve l'existence et l'unicité d'une solution au sens fort. Pour cela, des estimations sur les normes de Sobolev jusqu'à l'ordre 2 sont établies. Dans la seconde partie du chapitre 2, on montre que la solution de l'EDPS admet une unique mesure invariante. On se propose dans le chapitre 3 d'approcher numériquement cette mesure invariante. À cette fin, on introduit un schéma numérique dont la discrétisation spatiale est de type Volumes Finis et dont la discrétisation temporelle est une méthode d'Euler semi-implicite. Il est montré que ce type de schéma respecte certaines propriétés fondamentales de l'EDPS telles que la dissipation d'énergie et la contraction L1. Ces propriétés assurent l'existence et l'unicité d'une mesure invariante pour le schéma. À l'aide d'un certain nombre d'estimations de régularité, on montre ensuite que cette mesure invariante discrète converge, lorsque le pas de temps et le pas d'espace tendent vers zéro, vers l'unique mesure invariante pour l'EDPS au sens de la distance de Wasserstein d'ordre 2. Enfin, des expériences numériques sont effectuées sur l'équation de Burgers pour illustrer cette convergence ainsi que des propriétés à petites échelles spatiale relatives à la turbulence
This devoted to the theoretical and numerical analysis of a certain class of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs), namely scalar conservation laws with viscosity and with a stochastic forcing which is an additive white noise in time. A particular case of interest is the stochastic Burgers equation, which is motivated by turbulence theory. We focus on the long time behaviour of the solutions of these equations through a study of the invariant measures. The theoretical part of the thesis constitutes the second chapter. In this chapter, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution in a strong sense. To this end, estimates on Sobolev norms up to the second order are established. In the second part of Chapter~2, we show that the solution of the SPDE admits a unique invariant measure. In the third chapter, we aim to approximate numerically this invariant measure. For this purpose, we introduce a numerical scheme whose spatial discretisation is of the finite volume type and whose temporal discretisation is a split-step backward Euler method. It is shown that this kind of scheme preserves some fundamental properties of the SPDE such as energy dissipation and L^1-contraction. Those properties ensure the existence and uniqueness of an invariant measure for the numerical scheme. Thanks to a few regularity estimates, we show that this discrete invariant measure converges, as the space and time steps tend to zero, towards the unique invariant measure for the SPDE in the sense of the second order Wasserstein distance. Finally, numerical experiments are performed on the Burgers equation in order to illustrate this convergence as well as some small-scale properties related to turbulence

Aquesta tesis es centra en l’estudi de la transferència d’aigua i sediments des de les àrees font de sediments fins les zones de sedimentació a múltiples escales temporals (des de dades amb una freqüència de cinc minuts fins informació de tot un segle) i espacials (des de vessants fins a conques), i les seves implicacions en la morfologia de la llera de la conca de l’Alt Cinca, una conca de muntanya localitzada al vessant sud dels Pirineus. A escala de micro-conca, les dades d’alta resolució obtingudes durant 5 anys en dos badlands contrastats (0.3 ha cadascun) revelen com la pluja controla els processos erosius associats a l’escolament superficial, m’entre que les baixes temperatures tenen una relació significativa amb els processos de moviments en massa. La morfometria d’aquestes superfícies, conjuntament amb la cobertura vegetal són factors clau que determinen els principals processos geomorfològics i els associats canvis topogràfics. Els principals processos observats han estat seqüències d’Erosió i Sedimentació (Cutting and Filling) i Moviments Gravitacionals (Mass Wasting). Tot i que els badlands tenen un paper important en la producció de sediments, el balanç de sediments de la conca del riu Soto (10 km2) indica que aquestes superfícies no sempre controlen l’exportació de sediments a la sortida de petites conques de muntanya amb caràcter intermitent. Aquest fet és degut a la fluctuació de la connectivitat funcional de la xarxa de drenatge causada per la freqüència i magnitud dels polsos d’aigua i sediments durant crescudes sobtades o flashy. La xarxa de drenatge actua com a font i zona d’emmagatzematge de sediments i es clau per entendre les marcades diferències que hi ha en la proporció del sediment que s’exporta en relació a la producció o també anomenat Sediment Delivery Ratio. Els canvis en els usos de sòl en moltes conques de muntanya constatats des de els anys 50 del segle XX tenen un efecte directe en la generació d’escolament (quantitat i magnitud) i en la producció de sediments. La majoria de la superfície de la conca de l’Alt Cinca (1565 km2) ha sofert aforestació, que ha resultat en una reducció de la connectivitat sedimentaria estructural. La construcció de terrasses afecta la connectivitat molt més que els canvis en la coberta del sòl. Les terrasses generalment redueixen la connectivitat degut a l’establiment de zones planes entre mig de zones en pendent. Contràriament, a una escala més local, les terrasses poden incrementar la connectivitat degut a la convergència de flux produïda per les pròpies estructures, o per la caiguda d’aquestes degut a l’abandonament. La construcció de carreteres modifica el pendent i la xarxa de drenatge, fet que comportarà canvis en la connectivitat estructural, que a la vegada poden afectar els processos erosius en les zones veïnes. Així, els fluxos d’aigua i sediments a la conca de l’Alt Cinca han estat àmpliament modificats durant l’últim segle, amb implicacions directes en la forma de la llera. A més a més, impactes locals derivats de les extraccions d’àrids, construcció d’esculleres i embasaments també han condicionat la dinàmica sedimentaria d’aquest riu, amb un impacte directe sobre la morfologia. Aquesta situació ha generat una metamorfosis de la morfologia del riu en la part baixa de l’Alt Cinca (12 km), canviant d’un patró trenat, molt dinàmic, a un patró més estable amb una tendència cap a canal únic. Els resultats obtinguts indiquen que el tram d’estudi està assolint un nou equilibri morfo-sedimentari imposat pels canvis en els fluxos d’aigua i sediments ocorreguts en el darrer segle, incloent les pertorbacions antròpiques que han modificat la geometria del canal i les característiques morfològiques de la llera. S’han observat un total de tres fases en la seva evolució: abans de l’any 1927, el tram d’estudi es trobava en una situació de quasi-equilibri majoritàriament condicionada per les riuades. Entre l’any 1927 i 2012 el riu s’ha ajustat a les diferents pertorbacions que ha tingut a múltiples escales temporals i espacials. Aquest ajust s’ha portat a terme mitjançant dos canvis contrastats en les característiques morfològiques. Finalment, després de l’any 2012, els resultats indiquen que el riu pot haver assolit de nou un nou equilibri, ajustant-se als fluxos d’aigua i sediment imposats i a la nova configuració del canal. Aquesta tesis presenta innovadors mètodes quantitatius per a l’estudi de la producció de sediments i la transferència entre els diferents compartiments de les conques fluvials. La principal novetat en la majoria dels capítols de la tesis recau en l’elevada resolució, de les dades obtingudes, tant temporal com espacial. Els resultats obtinguts en aquesta tesi permeten entendre millor el funcionament dels sistemes fluvials i la seva evolució, aspectes claus per donar suport en la millora i gestió de conques hidrogràfiques de muntanya.
Esta tesis se centra en el estudio de la transferencia de agua y sedimentos desde las áreas fuente de sedimentos hasta las áreas de sedimentación a múltiples escales temporales (desde datos con una frecuencia de cinco minutos hasta información de un siglo) y espaciales (desde laderas hasta cuencas), y sus implicaciones en la morfología del cauce en la Cuenca del Alto Cinca (vertiente sur de los Pirineos). A escala de micro-cuenca, los datos de alta resolución obtenidos durante 5 años en dos badlands contrastados (0.3 ha cada uno) revelan como la lluvia controla los procesos erosivos asociados a la escorrentía superficial, mientras que las bajas temperaturas tienen una relación significativa con los procesos de movimientos en masa. La morfometría de estas superficies, conjuntamente con la cobertura vegetal, son factores clave que determinan los principales procesos geomorfológicos y los cambios topográficos asociados. Los principales procesos observados han sido secuencias de Erosión y Sedimentación (Cutting and Filling) y Movimientos Gravitacionales (Mass Wasting). Pese a que los badlands tienen un papel importante en la producción de sedimentos, el balance de sedimentos de la cuenca del rio Soto (10 km2) indica que estas superficies no siempre controlan la exportación de sedimentos a la salida de pequeñas cuencas de montaña con carácter intermitente. Esto principalmente se debe a la fluctuación de la conectividad funcional de la red de drenaje causada por la frecuencia y magnitud de los pulsos de agua y sedimentos durante las crecidas súbitas o flashy. La red de drenaje actúa como fuente y zona de almacenamiento de sedimentos, y es clave para entender las marcadas diferencias que hay en la proporción de sedimento que se exporta en relación a la producción o Sediment Delivery Ratio. Los cambios en los usos del suelo en muchas cuencas de montaña constatados desde los años 50 del siglo XX tienen un efecto directo en la generación de escorrentía (cantidad y magnitud) y en la producción de sedimentos. La mayoría de la superficie de la cuenca del Alto Cinca (1565 km2) ha sufrido forestación, que ha resultado en una reducción de la conectividad sedimentaria estructural. La construcción de terrazas afecta la conectividad mucho más que los cambios en la cobertura del suelo. A una escala más local, las terrazas pueden incrementar la conectividad debido a la convergencia de flujo producida por las propias estructuras, o por la caída de estas debido a su abandono. La construcción de carreteras modifica la pendiente y la red de drenaje, hecho que comporta cambios en la conectividad estructural, que a su vez pueden afectar a los procesos erosivos en las zonas vecinas. Así, los flujos de agua y sedimento en la cuenca del Alto Cinca han estado ampliamente modificados durante el último siglo, con implicaciones directas en la morfología del canal. Además, impactos locales derivados de las extracciones de áridos, construcción de escolleras y embalses también han condicionado la dinámica sedimentaria de este río, con un impacto directo sobre la morfología. Esta situación ha generado una metamorfosis de la morfología del río en la parte baja del Alto Cinca (12 km), cambiando de un patrón trenzado, muy dinámico, a un patrón más estable con una tendencia hacia el canal único. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el tramo de estudio está alcanzando un nuevo equilibrio morfo-sedimentario impuesto por los cambios en los flujos de agua y sedimentos ocurridos durante el último siglo, incluyendo las perturbaciones antrópicas que han modificado la geometría del canal y las características morfológicas del cauce. Se han observado un total de tres fases en su evolución: antes de 1927, el tramo de estudio se encontraba en una situación de casi-equilibrio, mayoritariamente controlada por las crecidas. Entre el año 1927 y 2012 el río se ha ajustado a las diferentes perturbaciones que ha tenido a múltiples escalas temporales y espaciales. Este ajuste se ha llevado a cabo mediante dos cambios contrastados en las características morfológicas. Finalmente, después del año 2012, los resultados indican que el río puede haber alcanzado un nuevo equilibrio, ajustándose a los flujos de agua y sedimento impuestos y la nueva configuración del canal. Esta tesis presenta innovadores métodos cuantitativos para el estudio de la producción de sedimentos y la transferencia entre los diferentes compartimentos de las cuencas fluviales. La principal novedad en la mayoría de los capítulos de la tesis recae en la elevada resolución de los datos obtenidos, tanto temporal como espacial. Los resultados obtenidos en esta tesis permiten entender mejor el funcionamiento de los sistemas fluviales y su evolución, aspectos clave para dar soporte y apoyo en la mejoría y gestión de cuencas hidrográficas de montaña.
This thesis focusses on the study of water and sediment transfer from sources to sinks at multiple temporal (from 5-min data to a century data sets) and spatial (from slope to catchment scales) scales and their implications for channel morphology in the Upper Cinca catchment, a mountain catchment located in the Southern Pyrenees. At the micro-catchment scale, our 5-year High Resolution Data Set of two contrasted badlands (around 0.3 ha each) reveal as rainfall control overland-surface flow processes while low temperatures have a significant relation with mass movement-based processes. Morphometry together with vegetation cover are key factors determining main geomorphic processes and associated topographic changes. Main observed geomorphic processes were Cutting and Filling and Mass Wasting. Although badlands may have an important role on sediment production, the 2-year sediment budget of the Soto catchment (10 km2) indicates that badlands do not always control the export of sediments at the outlet of small intermittent mountain catchments. This is mainly due to the fluctuation of the functional connectivity of the channel network caused by the frequency and magnitude of water and sediment pulses during flashy floods. The channel drainage network acts as sediment source and sink and it is key to understand marked differences in the Sediment Delivery Ration. Land use and cover in many mountain catchments have been modified since the fifties of the 20th century, having a direct effect on runoff and sediment production. Most of the area of the Upper Cinca catchment (1565 km2) has undergone afforestation, which resulted in a decrease of structural sediment connectivity. Terracing affects connectivity much more than changes in land cover. Terraces generally reduce connectivity due to the establishment of flat areas between slopes and, contrarily, locally, may increase connectivity due the convergence produced by the structures or the collapse of terraces due to abandonment. Road construction, however, modify slope and the drainage network, which leads to changes in connectivity that could affect erosional processes in the neighbouring areas. Thus, water and sediment fluxes through the Upper Cinca are spatially and temporal dynamic and have been dramatically modified in the last century, with direct implications on channel morphology. Additionally, localised disturbances such as gravel mining, channel embankments and dams have also impacted on sedimentary dynamics, thus channel morphology. This situation led to a river metamorphosis, changing from a braided pattern to a more static channel towards a wandering pattern. We hypothesise that the lowermost 12-km reach of the Upper Cinca has reaching a new equilibrium imposed by catchment-scale changes of water and sediment fluxes caused by global changes, but also influenced by localised human-disturbances that modify channel geometry and morpho-sedimentary characteristics. Three phases were identified: before 1927, the reach remained in a quasi-equilibrium state imposed, mainly, by water and sediment supply during flood events. During the period 1927-2012 the river adjusted to the disequilibrium imposed by disturbances acting at different temporal and spatial scales, yielding two contrasted channel states. Finally, after 2012, we hypothesise that the river may be reaching again a new equilibrium, adjusting to the imposed water and sediment fluxes and the new channel configuration. This thesis presents some novel quantitative methods for the study of sediment production and transfer between the different compartments of fluvial catchments. The main transversal novelty in all the methods used in each chapter lies in the high resolution of the data obtained. This comprehensive analysis aids at understanding the functioning of the river system and their evolution based on multiple-scale disturbances, which can help to support integrated watershed management practices or plans.

A existência de um méson escalar-isoescalar leve, conhecido como ?, foi proposta pela primeira vez na década de 60. A partícula tinha então um papel importante na construção teórica das interações ?? mas, apesar dos esforços experimentais, ela não foi detectada nos anos que se seguiram. Essa situação foi radicalmente alterada em 2001, quando uma ressonância escalar foi descoberta nos canais ?+?- do decaimento D+ -> ?+?-?+ e recebeu o rótulo ?(500). Sua existência é bem estabelecida hoje em dia. Contudo, no tratamento dos dados dos vários grupos experimentais são empregadas expressões com pouca base teórica e, por isso, os valores de sua massa e largura ainda são mal conhecidos. Neste tipo de decaimento, a formação da ressonância pode se dar no vértice fraco. Em sua subseqüente propagação, ocorrem as chamadas interações de estado final, cuja descrição não é trivial. Normalmente, essas interações não são levadas em conta de maneira criteriosa na análise de dados experimentais. Neste trabalho introduzimos uma função _(s) que descreve a propagação e decaimento da ressonância em presença das interações de estado final. No regime elástico, a fase de _(s) é determinada pelo chamado teorema de Watson, segundo o qual ela deve ser a mesma do espalhamento. Conseguimos estabelecer, sem ambigüidades, como a informação do espalhamento deve ser usada de forma a determinar não somente a fase de _(s), mas também seu módulo. Nosso principal resultado é uma expressão para _(s) em termos da fase elástica e de uma outra fase relacionada a uma integral de loop bem controlada. Três casos particulares foram explorados numericamente: os modelos sigma linear e não linear e ainda um modelo fenomenológico que leva em conta o acoplamento de canais p´?on-p´?on e k´aon-k´aon. Em consonância com a teoria quântica de campos, nosso resultado incorpora a unitariedade, considera a ressonância como grau de liberdade explícito e representa, ainda, uma generalização do procedimento usual de unitarizacao pela matriz K. Por permitir uma ligação clara entre espalhamento e produção, a função _(s) pode ser útil na análise de dados experimentais e ajudar na determinação da posição do pólo do ? e de outras ressonâncias escalares.
The existence of a light scalar-isoscalar meson, known as ?, was suggested in the 60\'s. This particle played an important role in the theoretical construction of ?? interactions but, in spite of all experimental effort, it failed to be detected. This scenario changed radically in 2001, when a scalar-isoscalar resonance was discovered in the ?+?- channel of the D+ -> ?+?-?+ decay and was called ?(500). Nowadays, its existence is rather well established. However, in the analysis of experimental data, expressions loosely based on theory are employed and therefore its mass and width are still not well known. In this kind of decay, the production of the resonance may occur at the weak vertex. When it propagates, final state interactions take place. Usually these interactions are not properly taken into account in data analysis. In this work, we introduce a function _(s), which describes the propagation and decay of the resonance in the presence of the final state interactions. In the elastic regime, the phase of _(s) is determined by the Watson\'s theorem, which states that it must be the same as the scattering phase. We were able to establish, unambiguously, how the information from scattering should be used to determine not only the phase of _(s) but also its modulus. Our main result is an expression for _(s) in terms of the elastic phase and another one related to a well controlled loop integral. Three special cases are explored numerically, namely: the linear and non linear sigma models and a phenomenological model that takes into account the coupling between pion-pion and kaon-kaon channels. In agreement with quantum field theory, our result encompasses unitarity, treats the resonance as an explicit degree of freedom and, moreover, corresponds to a generalisation of the usual K-matrix unitarization procedure. Since it represents a clear way to relate scattering and production, our function _(s) can be useful in data analysis and may be instrumental in the determination of the pole position of the ? as well as other scalar resonances.

Seismic, deformation, and gas activity (unrest) typically precedes volcanic eruptions. Successful volcanic event forecasting depends on the quality of the surveillance network for detecting any changes in volcano behaviour. To interpret the geochemical and geophysical precursors correctly it is important to understand the volcanic processes that occur prior and during volcanic eruptions. Detailed knowledge of the volcano internal structure, the rheology of the magmas, the time scales of the processes occurring at depth and the characteristics of past unrest episodes, must be combined with an adequate monitoring network to improve the volcanic hazard forecast. However, these aspects have received little attention in monogenetic volcanoes. The aim of my PhD Thesis is to improve our understanding on monogenetic volcanism, its causes and dynamics, and to help anticipating the volcanic activity. I have focused on three main aspects of this problem. The first one is the calculation of the rheological properties of magmas during mixing. The second aspect I have addressed are the processes and time scales that lead to monogenetic eruptions with the aim to better interpret volcanic unrest and improve eruption forecasts. Finally, I have investigated the seismic unrest periods of historical monogenetic eruptions from a compilation of historical accounts worldwide. The results provide a conceptual framework for better anticipating monogenetic eruptions and should lead to improved strategies for mitigation of their associated hazards and risks.
Las erupciones volcánicas están generalmente precedidas por la actividad sísmica, la deformación y la desgasificación (unrest). El éxito en la predicción del evento volcánico depende de la calidad de la red de vigilancia para detectar cualquier cambio en el comportamiento del volcán. Para interpretar los precursores geoquímicos y geofísicos correctamente es importante entender los procesos volcánicos que ocurren antes y durante las erupciones volcánicas. El conocimiento en detalle de la estructura interna del volcán, la reología de los magmas, las escalas de tiempo de los procesos que ocurren en profundidad y las características de los episodios pasados de unrest, debe combinarse con una red de vigilancia adecuada para mejorar el pronóstico de los eventos volcánicos. Sin embargo, estos aspectos han recibido poca atención en los volcanes monogenéticos. El objetivo de mi tesis doctoral es mejorar nuestra comprensión sobre el vulcanismo monogenético, sus causas y su dinámica, con el objetivo de mejorar la posibilidad de anticiparse a la actividad volcánica. Me he centrado en tres aspectos principales de este problema. El primero es el cálculo de las propiedades reológicas de los magmas durante los eventos de mezcla. El segundo aspecto es el estudio de los procesos, junto con sus escalas temporales, que llevan a erupciones monogenéticas con el fin de interpretar mejor la actividad volcánica y mejorar los pronósticos de una erupción. Por último, he investigado los períodos de unrest sísmico de erupciones monogenéticas históricas en todo el mundo mediante una compilación de documentos históricos. Los resultados proporcionan un marco conceptual que permite mejorar la predicción de erupciones monogenéticas y deberían conducir a mejores estrategias para mitigar sus peligros y riesgos asociados.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.
Thesis research directed by: Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation Program. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

L’analisi del fenomeno di Hump relativo ai motori di piccola scala è l’oggetto di studio di questo elaborato di tesi. Il primo step prevede l’introduzione e la descrizione dei possibili fattori che influenzano l’andamento del profilo di spinta dei motori a razzo, tra cui l’orientazione del particolato immerso nel propellente, il meccanismo di segregazione particellare e la separazione tra la fase liquida e quella solida. Ci si concentra in dettaglio sui primi due termini, dei quali si analizzano le conseguenze in relazione al processo produttivo, cioè sul processo di punzonatura e di colaggio, di un motore BARIA. Attraverso questa analisi, riferendosi ai dati teorici relativi alle variazioni sul rateo di combustione, si imposta l’orientamento dei grani come principale causa dell’effetto Hump per il processo di colaggio, mentre la segregazione particellare in riferimento al processo di punzonatura. Il passo finale consiste nel verificare la coerenza tra i profili di pressione provenienti da dati sperimentali (AVIO S.p.a.) e quelli ottenuti attraverso i codici di calcolo implementati.

Multiple scales of beach morphodynamic processes ranging from those of wave-breaking induced turbulence, individual wave, storm, seasonal, to inter-annual are examined in this dissertation based on both laboratory and field data. These processes were simulated using process-based numerical models and data-driven models. At a microscale, separating turbulence from orbital motion under breaking waves in the surf zone is essential to understanding wave-energy dissipation. Velocity data under monochromatic and random waves in the large-scale sediment transport facility (LSTF) were analyzed. Moving averaging provides a simple method for extracting turbulence from velocity measurements under random breaking waves collected at a reasonably high frequency. Various moving averaging time intervals were examined. An optimum moving averaging interval of approximately 30° to 42° phase angle (relative to peak wave period) allows a reasonable extraction of turbulence. An adaptive moving averaging with variable averaging time at wave crest and trough are proposed to improve the effect of turbulence extraction. At a mesoscale, hydrodynamic conditions associated with onshore migration of a sandbar and the subsequent equilibrium state of a stable bar were examined in the LSTF. Wave and near bottom velocity across the surf zone were measured during the onshore sandbar migration. The near-bottom velocity skewness indicates that before the sandbar reached equilibrium, the velocity was skewed offshore in the nearshore region, and skewed onshore seaward of the bar. The velocity skewness pattern reversed when the beach profile reached equilibrium and the sandbar became stable. The peak onshore directed acceleration was greater than the peak offshore directed acceleration throughout the surf zone during the periods of both onshore migrating and stable sandbar. The macroscale portion of the study examines the beach processes, particularly the morphodynamics of nearshore bar, at storm and seasonal scales. The bar height and bar position were extracted from bimonthly surveyed beach-profiles spaced at 300 m along the 22-km long Sand Key barrier island, West-Central Florida from October 2010 to August 2015. Seasonal beach cycle in the study area is illustrated by onshore sandbar migration during the summer and offshore sandbar migration during the winter, while subaerial beach remains rather stable. Alongshore variations of onshore and offshore sandbar migration were observed over storm events. The water depth over the pre-storm sandbar crest, or the bar crest elevation, is a major factor controlling the onshore or offshore sandbar movement. The offshore moving sandbar tends to have a shallower pre-storm bar crest, while the onshore moving sandbar tends to have a deeper pre-storm bar crest. A dynamic equilibrium bar height of 0.5 m for the study area was identified. The sandbar tends to evolve toward this equilibrium height during the seasonal cycle. The energetic conditions associated with Tropical Storm Debby caused a deviation from the above dynamic equilibrium conditions. The sandbar at most of the profile locations became higher than the pre-storm bar height regardless of the initial height of being greater or less than 0.5 m. After the storm, the higher and shallower bar experienced substantial erosion, the eroded sand was deposited in the trough landward. This resulted in a lower sandbar height, returning to the dynamic equilibrium height of 0.5 m. The Unibest-TC model (Walstra et al., 2012) is able to capture the measured trend of bar migration. The Modelling results suggest that offshore bar migration is dominated by suspended sediment transport. While onshore bar migration is driven mainly by bedload transport. At megascale, a data-driven model was developed to predict beach-profile evolution at multiple-annual scale. Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis was conducted on a time-series beach profile (R61) to identify temporal and spatial trends. Trends in the temporal EOF are modeled using a simple curve fitting. In this case, logarithmic and linear trends were identified. After the trend in temporal EOF values are identified, the curve fitting can be calibrated with 14-month data. The calibrated temporal EOF curve yielded accurate reproduction of profiles. The close examination of multiple scales of beach processes provides a comprehensive understanding of nearshore morphodynamics.

A importância da encenação de uma transição entre o mundo secular e a vida em clausura, no contexto da arquitectura cartusiana, é amplamente demonstrada através dos percursos de entrada dos conjuntos mais relevantes, bem como em muitos daqueles representados nas gravuras presentes no livro Maisons de l’Ordre des Chartreux – Vues et Notices, uma obra do início do século XX que inclui gravuras da quase totalidade dos 282 mosteiros cartusianos distribuídos por quase toda a Europa. Na maioria das cartuxas podem observarse transições indirectas e prolongadas, capazes de tardar o passo e dar significado à passagem para a clausura – características espaciais que São Bruno, fundador da casa cartusiana, considerava primordiais para a implantação do seu eremitério. A partir de uma cuidada análise dessa transição, nas cartuxas em geral, e da sua evolução morfológica, na cartuxa de Évora em particular – estimulada pela descoberta de dados aqui analisados e interpretados pela primeira vez – apresenta-se, em continuidade com a sua história e tendo como premissa a consolidação do processo de entrada, uma proposta de redefinição da estrutura monacal de Santa Maria Scala Coeli. Esta estrutura originária do século XVI encontra-se incompleta e degradada, em particular na ala sul onde se encontra o seu principal acesso, sendo fundamental o completamento desta área para o cabal reconhecimento da unidade do conjunto e da intenção na qual se traduz a sua génese. De resto, a estratégia de investigação e de projecto descrita nesta dissertação pode ser encarada como um processo plausível de ser utilizado no caso de futuras intervenções noutras estruturas cartusianas, contribuindo assim para a recuperação e preservação do conceito fundador da identidade da arquitectura cartusiana que, no decorrer da expansão da ordem, se foi perdendo; The Architecture of the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria Scala Coeli: About the process of entrance. ABSTRACT: The importance of staging a transition between the secular world and life cloistered in the context of Carthusian architecture is amply demonstrated through the input paths of the most important collections, as well as many of those represented in the pictures in the book Maisons de l’Ordre des Chartreux – Vues et Notices, one of the early twentieth century work that includes prints of almost all of the 282 Carthusians monasteries spread across almost all of Europe. In most of Carthusian the transitions that can be observed are indirect and long, able to delay the step and give meaning to the passage to the life cloistered - spatial characteristics that St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order, considered essential for the implementation of his hermitage. From a careful analysis of this transition, looking through the Carthusian in general, and its morphological evolution, in the Charterhouse of Évora in particular, encouraged by the data discovery here analyzed and interpreted for the first time - it is presented in continuity with its history and having premised on the consolidation of the entry process, a proposal for a redefinition of the monastic structure of Santa Maria Scala Coeli. This original structure of the sixteenth century is incomplete and degraded, particularly in the south wing where it is the main access, and where is fundamental the completion of this area to the full recognition of the unity of the whole and to understand the intent in which translates its genesis. Moreover, the research strategy and project described in this paper can be seen as a plausible case to be used in case of future interventions in other cartusianas structures, thus contributing to the recovery and preservation of the founder of the identity concept of the Carthusian architecture that, during the expansion of the order, was missing.

Orientador: José Fernando de Jesus
Resumo: Estudamos o campo escalar real como um possível candidato para explicar a matéria escura no universo. No contexto de um campo escalar livre com potencial quadrático, após encontrar as equações dinâmicas do modelo usamos os dados observacionais para limitar os parâmetros livres e assim encontrar um limite inferior para o valor da massa que foi da ordem de $10^{-34}$eV, esse valor está próximo ao encontrado por alguns autores. Não foi possível encontrar um limite superior para a massa da matéria escura do campo escalar combinando os dados de $H(z)$, SN Ia. Como verificado neste trabalho e observado em outros estudos, a matéria escura pode ser descrita por um campo escalar real. Em outra linha de pesquisa, usando um método estatístico não-paramétrico envolvendo os chamados Processos Gaussianos, obtivemos um valor do redshift de transição, $z_t$, de $z_t = 0.59^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ para dados de $H(z)$ e $z_t= 0.683^{+0.11}_{-0.082}$ para dados de SNs Ia.
Abstract: We studied the real scalar field as a possible candidate to explain the dark matter in the universe. In the context of a free scalar field with quadratic potential, after finding the dynamic equations of the model we used the observational data to limit the free parameters and thus find a lower limit for the mass value that was in the order of 10−34 eV , this value is close to that found by some authors. It was not possible to find an upper limit for the mass of dark matter in the scalar field by combining the H(z) + SNe Ia data. As verified in this work and observed in other studies, dark matter can be described by a real scalar field. In another line of research, using a non-parametric statistical method involving the so-called Gaussian Processes, we obtained a value of the transition redshift, zt , of zt = 0.59+0.12 −0.11 for H(z) data and zt = 0.683+0.11 −0.082 for SNs Ia data.
Mestre

The abundance of conspecific neighbours is one detenninant of individual plants' fitness. Moreover, intraspecific interactions' are essential to the temporal and spatial dynamics of populations, which detennine a species' local pers'istence or extinction. In this thesis I explore how different measures of neighbourhood density (in particular, those obtained by varying the area over which density is measured) may explain the perfonnance ofindividuals, using white campion (Silene /atifolia) as a model species. During establishment of seedlings, a glasshouse experiment showed that the intensity of competition depends on the size and. species-frequency of neighbours, reducing growth rates and increasing mortality at higher densities. Growth rate over the '' first 11 days was best explained by the size of neighbours within 3.2-cm squares, but by 55 days the .frequency of grass neighbours within 16-cm squares had be~ome the most important factor. A 2-year field experiment showed negative effects of conspecific density on herbivory that were strongest among density treatments'in 4-m squares. There were also positive effects on survival; an improved analysis using neighbourhood circles showed . peak effects in neighbourhoods extending to 0.24 m (0.48 m diameter). Seed production was negatively related to densities of plants at much coarser scaies (around 15 m radius); here a better predictor was the density of female flowers, which had negative ... effects peaking in neighbourhoods between 13 and 67 m in extent. A specialist seed herbivore inflicted the most damage in 6-m neighbourhoods with more female or fewer male flowers, although a model combining male flowers at 20 m and female flowers at 0.5 m showed positive effects ofboth sexes in one ofthe two years. The generality of these conclusions was explored by analysing data from a seminatural population. This emphasises the variability ofdensity effects and the importance of dealing with spatial autocorrelation whet) analysing effects at multiple scales. I conclude that much remains to be done if population ecology is to explain the spatial patterns ofplant populations at multiple scales.

In this thesis we address the problem of data-driven coarse-graining, i.e. the process of inferring simplified models, which describe the evolution of the essential characteristics of a complex system, from available data (e.g. experimental observation or simulation data). Specifically, we consider the case where the coarse-grained model can be formulated as a stochastic differential equation. The main part of this work is concerned with data-driven coarse-graining when the underlying complex system is characterised by processes occurring across two widely separated time scales. It is known that in this setting commonly used statistical techniques fail to obtain reasonable estimators for parameters in the coarse-grained model, due to the multiscale structure of the data. To enable reliable data-driven coarse-graining techniques for diffusion processes with multiple time scales, we develop a novel estimation procedure which decisively relies on combining techniques from mathematical statistics and numerical analysis. We demonstrate, both rigorously and by means of extensive simulations, that this methodology yields accurate approximations of coarse-grained SDE models. In the final part of this work, we then discuss a systematic framework to analyse and predict complex systems using observations. Specifically, we use data-driven techniques to identify simple, yet adequate, coarse-grained models, which in turn allow to study statistical properties that cannot be investigated directly from the time series. The value of this generic framework is exemplified through two seemingly unrelated data sets of real world phenomena.

This thesis investigates some of the properties of a variational approximation to scalar field theories: a trial wavefunctional which has a gaussian form is used as a ground state ansatz for an interacting scalar field theory - the expectation value of the Hamiltonian in this state is then minimized. This we call the Gaussian Approximation; the resulting effective potential we follow others by calling the Gaussian Effective Potential (GEP). An equivalent but more general finite temperature formalism is then reviewed and used for the calculations of the GEP in this thesis. Two scalar field theories are described: ϕ⁴ theory in four dimensions (ϕ⁴₄) and ϕ⁶ theory in three dimensions (ϕ⁶₃). After showing what the Gaussian Approximation does in terms of Feynman diagrams, renormalized GEP's are calculated for both theories. Dimensional Regularization is used in the renormalization and this this is especially convenient for the GEP in ϕ⁶₃ theory because it becomes trivially renor-malizable. It is noted that ϕ⁶₃ loses its infrared asymptotic freedom in the Gaussian Approximation. Finally, it is shown how a finite temperature GEP can be calculated by finding low and high temperature expansions of the temperature terms in ϕ⁶₃ theory.
Science, Faculty of
Physics and Astronomy, Department of
Graduate

Seagrass productivity is largely limited by nutrient and light availability. However, increasing evidence suggests that sedimentary geochemical processes may play an essential role in seagrass productivity/health. Much of this work has been largely phenomenalistic and has not clearly identified the spatio-temporal behavior of the major geochemical parameters involved in diagenesis of seagrass sediments. In this study, a much broader range of both dissolved and solid phase chemical parameters in eelgrass vegetated sediments was investigated. Parallel measurements were made on adjacent unvegetated sediments (<10 m) to more clearly refine the specific influences of seagrass (Zostera marina) on chemical gradients in associated sediments. Previous studies have pointed strongly toward diurnal ??ventilation?? of sediments vegetated with seagrass by the exudation of photosynthetically produced oxygen. However, strong lateral variability of sediment geochemical parameters among and between seagrass vegetated and unvegetated sediments made the observation of diurnal effects sufficiently difficult. Changes resulting from temporal variability were difficult to discern within the spatial variability. A critical question that is often not dealt with in the study of the early diagenesis of sediments is what spatial and temporal sampling intervals are required to account for the dominant source of variability. The auto-covariance function (ACF) was used to determine the optimum scaling length for sample intervals (?x) of ?H2S and Fe2+. Characteristic scale lengths obtained for sediments from seagrass environments are not significantly different from those observed for unvegetated sediments and averaged 13.7?? 2.2 mm. Lateral variations in our scales analyses showed that scale length approximated our sampling interval and that lateral sampling intervals were smaller than the vertical sampling intervals. Our results indicate that macrofauna dwelling in the sediment, the seagrass root/rhizomes, and aggregations of bacteria, microalgae, and meiofauna may be responsible for the vertical and lateral variability. Model calibrations and sensitivity analyses from a sediment-seagrass diagenetic model revealed that changes in physical parameters of the sediments (irrigation, advection, and porosity, for example) had the greatest effect on organic carbon and total dissolved sulfides. This study revealed that sedimentary geochemical parameters that are both vertically and laterally heterogeneous may also affect seagrass productivity.

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2009.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Geology. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

This study examined the evidence for the response process validity of the Stanford Binet, Fifth Edition (Roid, 2003a). Students from introductory psychology classes (n = 101) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions defined by the five cognitive processes the SB5 intends to measure. Participants responded to items from the Verbal and Nonverbal Scale subtests for their condition. Participants explained how they solved the problems and rated the degree to which they used each of the cognitive processes and verbal mediation. Graduate student raters independently assigned participants? descriptions into categories representing the cognitive process and level of verbal mediation. Results generally provide strong evidence for the response processes validity of the SB5, as well as the measures used in this study.

Ecosystems around the globe are being degraded by anthropogenic activity. Coastal ecosystems are considered especially vulnerable given that human populations are concentrated at the coast. Extensive areas of saltmarsh habitat have already been lost to land reclamation, and the continued existence of natural marsh systems is in question. Understanding how saltmarsh plants interact within a changing coastal environment is seen as a vital step in protecting remaining habitat and delivering successful restoration. This thesis examines patterns of saltmarsh change across Great Britain (GB), and the biological and environmental drivers responsible for change, in order to better understand marsh persistence. Studies have tended to assess marsh persistence based on their capacity to grow vertically with sea level rise. Long-term horizontal marsh dynamics are often overlooked. Chapter 2 examines 100 years of saltmarsh area change across GB and found that sea level rise and sediment supply determined whether saltmarshes expanded or eroded. All marshes were keeping pace with sea level rise, highlighting the importance of considering horizontal dynamics in long-term marsh change. Identifying the limits on horizontal saltmarsh growth onto tidal flats has been valuable in assessing potential impacts of coastal change on open-coast marsh systems, however little work has been done on identifying limits of marsh extent within estuaries. Chapter 3 examines saltmarsh extent change between 1948 and 2013 in three sheltered estuaries along western GB, and shows that changes in the position of tidal channels limited marsh extent. Channels periodically migrated across the estuary causing marsh erosion. On the opposite bank, marshes tended to expand, indicating the capacity of marshes to cycle between phases of expansion and erosion retaining a dynamic persistence within estuaries. Horizontal erosion of saltmarsh creeks causes vegetated marsh debris to accumulate at the creek base. Indications are that these deposits limit further erosion and promote recovery through trapping sediment if they persist. However, biotic and abiotic controls on debris longevity are unclear. Chapter 4 examines monthly creek change over a year and shows that failed bank debris with high root content slow debris erosion rates, thereby promoting sediment trapping and recovery. Thus, plant growth plays an important role on saltmarsh stability. By investigating marsh change over different spatio-temporal scales, a picture emerges of how biological and environmental drivers collectively influence change in saltmarsh extent. This offers important insight into how management interventions could target the drivers of marsh change at each scale in order to build marsh resilience, and is discussed in chapter 5.

Geomorphologists have long observed the influence of lithology on landscape form and evolution. However, the specific mechanisms by which this is accomplished are not well characterized. Here, I investigate the role of lithology in landscape evolution processes across spatial and temporal scales and geomorphic domains, to progress our understanding of the basic controls on the processes which shape Earth's surface. These investigations were carried out within the Valley and Ridge province of the Appalachian Mountains, where contrasts in strength of underlying lithologies (juxtaposed by Alleghanian deformation) exert a clear, dominant control on the fabric of the landscape, providing an excellent opportunity to study the influence of lithology on a variety of landscape evolution processes. First, I assess the geomorphic function of boulders found on hillslopes and channels in the Valley and Ridge province of the Appalachians, which are sourced from resistant lithologies capping ridgelines. High-resolution UAV surveys and field mapping of boulder distributions and characteristics reveal that boulders are abundant on hillslopes and highly concentrated in channels, often trap sediment upslope, and appear to be long-lived. These observations suggest that boulders act as armor for hillslopes and channels, shielding weaker underlying units from erosion and inhibiting fluvial incision, and therefore play an important role in preserving topography in the Valley and Ridge landscape, highlighting a specific mechanism by which lithology exerts an influence on topography in this setting. Second, I investigate the relative importance of rock strength and discontinuity spacing in setting fluvial bedrock erodibility by comparing knickpoint and non-knickpoint bedrock, which correspond to end-member erodibility cases, and assess how lithology impacts knickpoint expression. Detailed field surveys of 21 lithologic knickpoints, surrounding non-knickpoint reaches, and corresponding bedrock properties reveal three key outcomes: 1) discontinuity spacing is a stronger predictor of knickpoint occurrence, and therefore more significant in setting bedrock erodibility in this setting, confirming quantitatively the hypothesis that discontinuities exert a dominant control on fluvial erodibility, 2) knickpoint expression is a function of the unique combination of characteristics within a given stratigraphic interval, and therefore highly complex and specific to local conditions, implying that knickpoint morphology should be interpreted with extreme caution, and 3) because all 21 study knickpoints occur within the same unit, inter-unit heterogeneity must be accounted for before lithologic influence on channel profile convexities can be ruled out, rather than comparing to geologic map contacts. These findings represent an important contribution towards a more functional understanding of the influence of lithology on fluvial bedrock incision processes.
Doctor of Philosophy
It has long been observed that underlying geology has a strong impact on the shape of the surrounding landscape and influences the erosional processes that act within that landscape. However, though the importance of rock type in shaping landscapes is recognized, the specific mechanisms by which this is accomplished are not well understood. The work presented here investigates the role of rock type and rock properties in landscape evolution processes in both hillslope and river environments within the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Mountains. This setting is ideally suited for investigating the role of rock type on landscape evolution processes because of the wide variation in rock types present in this setting, which exert a strong influence on local topography (e.g., strong rocks form ridges while weak rocks underlie valleys). First, I mapped the distribution of large boulders on local Valley and Ridge slopes and mountain streams to assess the potential for these boulders to play a role in preserving local topography. Results show that boulders are sourced from resistant rock types found along ridgelines, and are abundant on hillslopes and highly concentrated in channels. Boulders also trap sediment upslope and appear to remain in place for long periods of time. These observations suggest boulders play an important role in slowing erosion of weaker rock types underlying hillslopes and channels, and therefore aid in preserving topography in this setting. Second, I conducted detailed surveys of local small-scale waterfalls and surrounding flat river reaches and compared properties of the bedrock between these locations to better understand how bedrock properties influence erodibility. In this setting, waterfalls often signify strong underlying bedrock relative to the rock beneath flat river reaches, so comparing bedrock properties between these areas should give insight into how properties like rock strength and bed thickness impact how erodible the bedrock is. Results show that bed thickness is the most important variable impacting bedrock erodibility in this setting, and that waterfall appearance is a product of the unique combination of bedrock properties within a given area. These results are important for improving our ability to model natural landscapes and erosional processes, and for developing a more complete understanding for the relationships between rock type and river morphology.

Higher performance, lower cost, increasingly minimizing integrated circuit components, and higher packaging density of chips are ongoing goals of the microelectronic and computer industry. As these goals are being achieved, however, power consumption and flexibility are increasingly becoming bottlenecks that need to be addressed with the new technology in Very Large-Scale Integrated (VLSI) design. For modern systems, more energy is required to support the powerful computational capability which accords with the increasing requirements, and these requirements cause the change of standards not only in audio and video broadcasting but also in communication such as wireless connection and network protocols. Powerful flexibility and low consumption are repellent, but their combination in one system is the ultimate goal of designers. A generic domain-specific low-power reconfigurable processor for the distributed arithmetic algorithm is presented in this dissertation. This domain reconfigurable processor features high efficiency in terms of area, power and delay, which approaches the performance of an ASIC design, while retaining the flexibility of programmable platforms. The architecture not only supports typical distributed arithmetic algorithms which can be found in most still picture compression standards and video conferencing standards, but also offers implementation ability for other distributed arithmetic algorithms found in digital signal processing, telecommunication protocols and automatic control. In this processor, a simple reconfigurable low power control unit is implemented with good performance in area, power and timing. The generic characteristic of the architecture makes it applicable for any small and medium size finite state machines which can be used as control units to implement complex system behaviour and can be found in almost all engineering disciplines. Furthermore, to map target applications efficiently onto the proposed architecture, a new algorithm is introduced for searching for the best common sharing terms set and it keeps the area and power consumption of the implementation at low level. The software implementation of this algorithm is presented, which can be used not only for the proposed architecture in this dissertation but also for all the implementations with adder-based distributed arithmetic algorithms. In addition, some low power design techniques are applied in the architecture, such as unsymmetrical design style including unsymmetrical interconnection arranging, unsymmetrical PTBs selection and unsymmetrical mapping basic computing units. All these design techniques achieve extraordinary power consumption saving. It is believed that they can be extended to more low power designs and architectures. The processor presented in this dissertation can be used to implement complex, high performance distributed arithmetic algorithms for communication and image processing applications with low cost in area and power compared with the traditional methods.

By introducing a concept of dynamic process operating under multi-time scales in sciences and engineering, a mathematical model is formulated and it leads to a system of multi-time scale stochastic differential equations. The classical Picard-Lindel\"{o}f successive approximations scheme is expended to the model validation problem, namely, existence and uniqueness of solution process. Naturally, this generates to a problem of finding closed form solutions of both linear and nonlinear multi-time scale stochastic differential equations. To illustrate the scope of ideas and presented results, multi-time scale stochastic models for ecological and epidemiological processes in population dynamic are exhibited. Without loss in generality, the modeling and analysis of three time-scale fractional stochastic differential equations is followed by the development of the numerical algorithm for multi-time scale dynamic equations. The development of numerical algorithm is based on the idea if numerical integration in the context of the notion of multi-time scale integration. The multi-time scale approach is applied to explore the study of higher order stochastic differential equations (HOSDE) is presented. This study utilizes the variation of constant parameter technique to develop a method for finding closed form solution processes of classes of HOSDE. Then then probability distribution of the solution processes in the context of the second order equations is investigated.

Resources are often unevenly distributed through the environment, resulting in a challenging task for insects to locate food, mates and oviposition sites. Consequently, there is an ongoing need to unravel how insects rely on behavioural and sensory traits while searching for resources in heterogeneous environments. In the first part of this thesis, I addressed this issue by studying how neighbouring resources can affect the likelihood of insects finding their preferred host resources. These effects of neighbouring resources are commonly referred to as associational effects, and are expected to result from limitations in the sensory physiology of insects. Such limitations constrain the insect’s ability to correctly evaluate resource quality at the different steps involved in insect search behaviour. Furthermore, I determined whether the physiological state of an insect, and sensory experiences made during larval stages, can affect host search behaviour in heterogeneous environments. By comparing the behaviour of Drosophila melanogaster in environments with single and multiple resources, I found that the presence of neighbouring recourses increased the selection rates for attractive resources, while it decreased the selection rates for less attractive resources. These effects are referred to as associational susceptibility and associational resistance respectively. Furthermore, by studying oviposition behaviour, I found that during these small-scale behavioural decisions, associational effects are mainly governed by gustatory mediated selection and less by olfactory mediated selection. The oviposition assay eliminated potential misinterpretations of resource quality along the different steps of search behaviour, hence the results suggested that associational effects rely on distinctive selection behaviour between resource types rather than on sensory constraints. In the second part of this thesis I determined whether natal experiences can be used by insects as sensory shortcuts to find host resources, and whether this leads to better larval performance on those selected host resources. For this purpose, I studied the interactions between the larval parasitoid Asecodes lucens and the oligophagous leaf beetle Galerucella sagittariae. The results showed that the relationship between oviposition preference and larval performance, of both insect species, depends on an interactive effect between the insects’ natal origin and the quality of the different host resources. Moreover, I found that the natal origin was a better predictor for the adult host preference, rather than for larval performance. This suggests that, aside from the actual quality of the host resources, locating any suitable host might be even more limiting for the female’s fitness.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Accepted. Paper 3: Submitted.

[Truncated abstract] Estimating internal biogeochemical fluxes is essential to the understanding of the dynamic of aquatic ecosystems. Different ecological approaches have been used to gain insight into the internal cycling, but success has been limited. A critical point is the identification of the characteristic scales of patterns and the underlying processes affecting the behaviour of biological and chemical species. Failing to capture these scales leads to misinterpretation of field and numerical data. In this study, key aspects in the design of ecological surveys are identified to ensure that the internal biogeochemical processes are well represented. In the first part of this thesis, a 1D reaction-diffusion-advection equation is used to investigate the formation of patterns and relevant time and spatial scales. This is used to define an approach for the determination of a critical domain size that allows differentiation of the role of local and internal cycling from advective fluxes across the open boundaries in a shallow coastal ecosystem. By using a 3D numerical model, in conjunction with an extensive field data set, it is shown that domain sizes must be larger than this critical value in order to capture the patterns generated within the system. For smaller domains, transport processes control the evolution of the system across the boundaries misleading the interpretation of the internal ecological dynamics. The study of the influence of boundary fluxes on ecological patchiness was motivated by the need to define the size of the domain necessary for the assessment of the impact of a sewage outflow on a coastal regime. The quantification of biogeochemical processes has proven to be difficult to achieve especially under conditions of high spatial and temporal hydrodynamic and biogeochemical variability. In the second part of this thesis, a Lagrangian experimental design is employed to estimate biogeochemical rate coefficients in situ. A set of four drogues and a cross-transect sampling design is used to capture the patchy distribution of phytoplankton and nutrient species, and high transport and mixing rates. ... Total chlorophyll from both models shows similar behavior when the variability in the 3D model, expressed as Chlamax/Chlamin, is low. When Chlamax/Chlamin is high, the difference between the biomass predicted by the two models reaches 30% due to the generation of localised patches. Comparison of the 1D and 3D results highlights the need of using models that are able to resolve the spatial complexity to some extent, as the use of averaged properties may produce misleading results. This is especially important in the presence of patches with differential physiological and biogeochemical characteristics, and nonlinear processes, in which case biomass average is not necessarily linearly related to the averaged environment.

Nowadays society strongly depends on its available resources and the long term stability of the surrounding ecosystem. Numerical modelling has become a general standard for evaluating past, current or future system states for a large number of applications supporting decision makers in proper management. In order to ensure the correct representation of the investigated processes and results of a simulation, verification examples (benchmarks), that are based on observation data or analytical solutions, are utilized to evaluate the numerical modelling tool. In many parts of the world, groundwater is an important resource for freshwater. While it is not only limited in quantity, subsurface water bodies are often in danger of contamination from various natural or anthropogenic sources. Especially in arid regions, marine saltwater intrusion poses a major threat to groundwater aquifers which mostly are the exclusive source of freshwater in these dry climates. In contrast to common numerical groundwater modelling, density-driven flow and mass transport have to be considered as vital processes in the system and in scenario simulations for fresh-saltwater interactions. In the beginning of this thesis, the capabilities of the modelling tool OpenGeoSys are verified with selected benchmarks to represent the relevant non-linear process coupling. Afterwards, variable-density application and process studies on different scales are presented. Application studies comprehend regional groundwater modelling of a coastal aquifer system extensively used for agricultural irrigation, as well as hydro-geological model development and parametrization. In two process studies, firstly, a novel method to model gelation of a solute in porous media is developed and verified on small scale laboratory observation data, and secondly, investigations of thermohaline double-diffusive Rayleigh regimes on medium scale are carried out. With the growing world population and, thus, increasing pressure on non-renewable resources, intelligent management strategies intensify demand for potent simulation tools and development of novel methods. In that way, this thesis highlights not only OpenGeoSys’ potential of density-dependent process modelling, but the comprehensive importance of variable-density flow and transport processes connecting, both, avant-garde scientific research, and real-world application challenges.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geology, 2005.
Title from second page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [3], viii, 216 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-159).

Spatial patterns, at multiple scales, can influence the functioning of local communities, but studies of community interactions are often conducted at a local scale. To investigate how spatial complexity at local, regional, and geographic scales influences a local aquatic macroinvertebrate community, I designed experiments using the natural mesocosm of bromeliad phytotelmata, quantifying community structure (functional diversity and trophic structure) and function (decomposition) of an entire food web in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Brazil. At the local scale I studied the effects of habitat patch size on trophic structure and decomposition rates at all three sites. The relationship between decomposition and bromeliad size varied by site. In Costa Rica, size-sensitive top predators drove strong top-down control of leaf decomposition in larger bromeliads causing a negative relationship between decomposition and bromeliad size. In Puerto Rico this relationship was positive, as the lack of a large top predator allowed reduced top-down control in larger bromeliads. In Brazil, climatic conditions potentially shifted decomposition processes to microbial control, and no relationship between bromeliad size and decomposition rate existed. At the regional scale, by enclosing varying numbers of bromeliads I determined how functional traits of species determined extinctions within the metacommunity. Small metacommunities became less diverse and local extinctions were more stochastic than in large ones. Large-bodied predators and invertebrates requiring resources in the terrestrial matrix were most sensitive to metacommunity size. At the geographic scale, I combined experimental replicates in each site and community-analogues in common sites to identify mechanisms of context-dependency of community structure and function relationships among study sites. Top-down control of detritivore communities by predators was influenced by geographic differences in species traits, whereas cascading effects of predators on decomposition were influenced by geographic variation in environmental conditions. With these studies I was able to identify relationships between community functions and spatial processes operating at a hierarchy of spatial scales. I identified how biogeographical shifts in climate and large-scale connectivity among study sites can influence traits in the species pool which can affect both metacommunity dynamics and sensitivity of species to local extinctions due to habitat patch size.

The topic of smart grids has become one of the most important research arenas recently. Spurred by the urges to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for several environmental and economic reasons, researchers have written many treatises on this topic. M. He, S. Murugesan and J. Zhang suggested in their article, "Multiple Timescale Dispatch and Scheduling for Stochastic Reliability in Smart Grids with Wind Generation Integration", a new pricing and scheduling model to exploit the wind (or any other stochastic) energy to the fullest extent. I studied this model, and from my experiments, I found a defect. In this thesis, I try to evaluate this model. Firstly, I present it with detailed proofs of the main results. Secondly, I explain the experiments and simulations I did. Then, I analyze the results to show the defect I discovered. Finally, I suggest a solution for that defect, and I point out the advantages of that model.

Nous avons appliqué notre interface QM/MM pour modéliser les propriétés photophysiques et photochimiques du chromophore rétinal dans plusieurs environnements.Nous avons commencé par montrer que la méthylation du squelette carbonné du rétinal, qui transforme une photochimie lente en un processus ultra-rapide, comme dans une protéine, dans une solution de méthanol, modifie l’interaction entre les états excités du rétinal, et favorise la formation d’une espèce transitoire réactive. Nous avons ensuite étudié l’effet direct de l’environnement dans le cas de mimiques de la rhodopsine, où des mutations ponctuelles de quelques acides aminés donnent des systèmes qui absorbent sur toute la gamme du visible. En combinaison avec la spectroscopie pompe-sonde ultra-rapide, notre méthode a montré que le potentiel électrostatique autour du rétinal peut affecter la forme des surfaces d’énergies potentielles excitées, et peut moduler le temps de vie de l’état excité ainsi que le lieu de photo-isomérisation. Ensuite, nous avons montré que l’état de protonation standard des acides aminés proches du rétinal dans la bacteriorhodopsine mènent à une surestimation de l’énergie d’absorption,alors que la protonation du résidu Asp212 donne des résultats plus précis ; nous souhaitons maintenant valider ce modèle par le calcule des propriétés de fluorescence et de temps de vie de l’état excité. Enfin, nous avons modélisé la photophysique de la base de Schiff non-protonée d’un pigment UV, où une photochimie originale, et non encore documentée, a lieu, impliquant notamment un état doublement excité. Ces études ont montré la robustesse de notre potentiel QM/MM pour modéliser une large gamme d’environnements
We have used our QM/MM interface to model the photochemical and photophysical properties of the retinal chromophore in several environments.First, we proved that methylation of the retinal backbone, which converts a slow photochemistry to an ultra-fast protein-like behaviour in methanol solution, modifies the interplay between the retinal excited states, favouring the formation of a photo-active transient intermediate. Then, we have studied the direct effect of the environment in the case of rhodopsin mimics, where point mutations of a few amino-acids lead to systems that can absorb in the wide visible range. Combined with ultra-fast pump-probe spectroscopy, our method has shown that the electrostatic potential around the retinal can affect the shape of the excited potential energy surface, and is able to tune the excited state lifetime as well as the location of the photoisomerization. Next, we showed that the currently accepted protonation state of amino-acids in the vicinity of the retinal in bacteriorhodopsin leads to a strongly blue shifted absorption, while the protonation of Asp212 leads to accurate results; we now aim toward a validation of this protonation by computation of fluorescence and excited state lifetime. Finally, we have modeled the photophysics of the unprotonated Schiff base in a UV-pigment, where an original an previously unreported photochemistry takes place, especially with the direct involvement of a doubly excited state. These studies have shown the reliability of our QM/MM potential for modeling a wide range of different environments

Le moderne tecniche geomatiche consentono di rilevare i Beni Culturali a diverse scale di indagine e di integrare i risultati provenienti da differenti tecnologie, purché i dati digitali siano georefernziabili in un unico sistema di riferimento condiviso. Il caso di studio in esame, relativo all’importante borgo di San Leo (RN), è stato in questo senso molto interessante, avendo fornito l’opportunità di aggregare insieme, in un unico database finale, una grande quantità di dati tridimensionali provenienti da molteplici rilievi realizzati nel corso degli ultimi anni sul sito. Le tecniche utilizzate sono state soprattutto il laser a scansione e la fotogrammetria digitale, ma per l’orientamento delle nuvole di punti in senso assoluto si è fatto ricorso anche a misure GNSS e topografiche. L’esperienza ha confermato le potenzialità delle tecniche adottate, consentendo di generare un archivio unico, di dimensioni non comuni, che, se ulteriormente ampliato nel futuro, potrà costituire una documentazione rigorosa e di alta fedeltà di questo importantissimo sito, il cui ingente patrimonio artistico-culturale è stato peraltro soggetto nel tempo ad eventi calamitosi che costituiscono un rischio per la sua conservazione e che, a maggior ragione, richiedono una documentazione di qualità appropriata.

This thesis aims to test the ability of a non-hydrostatic multiscale mineral dust model to reproduce the physical processes associated with the dust cycle at meteorological scales ranging from synoptic to mesoscale (~100-1 km spatial resolution) over Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe (NAMEE). The NMMB/BSC-Dust model, the mineral dust module of the NMMB-MONARCHv1.0 model, is the main tool used. To reach this objective, three specific modeling studies investigate the model's ability to reproduce mineral dust processes in a wide range of spatial scales. The first study aims to address the consistency of the model in reproducing the dust cycle and its major involved processes, from synoptic to mesoscale (~100-10 km spatial resolution), for a year (2011) in NAMEE. For that purpose, three model runs are used: one at a global scale and two at the regional scale, which are compared to ground-based observations (weather sites, in-situ PM10 stations and sun-photometers) and aerosol satellite products (MISR and MODIS). The model reproduces the large-scale processes involved in the seasonality of the dust transport in line with MISR and MODIS, and remains consistent between the studied meteorological scales. In comparison with surface observations, the model shows a great ability to resolve long-range dust transport. The model underestimates dust concentrations in the Western and Central Sahara-Sahel in summer, which are associated with wind speed underestimations, low emissions from Mali-Mauritania and omitting haboobs. Otherwise, dust overestimations in the central Sahara-Sahel from October to March are linked to an overestimation of the Harmattan winds. In the Middle East, the model underestimates dust concentrations, which is partly linked to its topography and meteorological small-scale processes that are not well resolved in these configurations. The regional configurations better represented the dust fields' spatiotemporal variability over the region and the finer scales by, for example, enhancing the development of low-level jets and topographic effects on meteorology and dust fields. This analysis demonstrates the model's consistency between global and regional scales. The second study addresses how the model reproduces topographic effects on dust transport over complex topography. For that purpose, two regional model runs (30 and 3 km spatial resolution) covered two synoptic dust storms that occurred on 17-20/03/2012 in the Middle East. In comparison with observations from surface weather stations, sun-photometers, and satellite aerosol products (MODIS and MSG), the model successfully reproduces these dust storms despite differences in the magnitude of the simulated dust fields. Differences between both simulations arise in Southwestern Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman where the topography alters the meteorology and the transported dust fields by channeling the dust flow through valleys or by blocking on the windward side of the mountain ranges. In this sense, the dust simulation using a higher horizontal resolution reproduced the dust transport better in the vicinity of complex terrain. The third study investigates the model's ability to resolve haboobs with five model runs at different spatial resolutions and for both parameterized and explicit convection, under a convective situation on 14/07/2011 in West Africa. Parameterized runs are limited in resolving haboobs because they tend to remove atmospheric instability, especially under orographic convective events. This results in an earlier and more abundant rainfall than compared to explicit runs. Haboobs and their associated processes, such as moist convection, cold pools and density currents, are well-developed in the explicit runs at 3 km, but at coarser resolutions (e.g. 10 km) those processes are less intense, and the vertical development of the haboob's front edge is poorly resolved.
Esta tesis pretende probar la capacidad de un modelo de polvo mineral multi-escala no-hidrostático para reproducir los procesos físicos asociados al ciclo del polvo desde la escala sinóptica hasta mesoescala (~100-1 km de resolución espacial) en el norte de África, Oriente Próximo y Europa (NAOPE). El modelo NMMB/BSC-Dust, el módulo de polvo del modelo NMMB-MONARCHv1.0, es la principal herramienta utilizada. Para alcanzar este objetivo, tres estudios de modelización investigan la capacidad del modelo para reproducir los procesos de polvo en un amplio rango de escalas espaciales. El primer estudio aborda la consistencia del modelo en la reproducción del ciclo del polvo y sus principales procesos, desde la escala sinóptica hasta mesoescala (~100-10 km de resolución espacial), durante un año (2011) en NAOPE. Para ello, utilizaremos tres simulaciones: una a escala global y dos a escala regional, y observaciones en superficie (estaciones meteorológicas, de PM10, y fotómetros solares) y satelitales (MISR y MODIS). El modelo reproduce la estacionalidad del transporte del polvo en comparación con MISR y MODIS, un comportamiento que permanece consistente entre las escalas estudiadas. En comparación con las observaciones en superficie, el modelo resuelve bien el transporte de polvo. El modelo subestima las concentraciones de polvo en el Sahara-Sahel occidental y central en verano, debido a subestimaciones de vientos, bajas emisiones en Malí-Mauritania y la no reproducción de haboobs. Por otro lado, el modelo sobreestima el polvo en el centro del Sahara-Sahel de octubre a marzo por la sobreestimación del Harmattan. En Oriente Próximo, el modelo subestima las concentraciones de polvo debido a su topografía y procesos meteorológicos de pequeña escala que no están bien resueltos en estas configuraciones. Las configuraciones regionales reprodujeron mejor la variabilidad espaciotemporal de los campos de polvo y procesos de escalas más finas como los "low level jets" o efectos topográficos. Este análisis demuestra la consistencia del modelo entre escalas globales y regionales. El segundo estudio se centra en cómo el modelo reproduce efectos topográficos sobre el transporte de polvo en zonas de topografía compleja. Con este propósito, dos simulaciones regionales (30 y 3 km de resolución espacial) cubrieron dos tormentas de polvo de origen sinóptico que se produjeron el 17-20/03/2012 en Oriente Próximo. En comparación con estaciones meteorológicas, fotómetros de solares, y satélites (MODIS y MSG), el modelo reproduce satisfactoriamente estas tormentas de polvo a pesar de las diferencias en la magnitud de los campos de polvo simulados. Las principales diferencias entre ambas simulaciones surgieron en el suroeste de Arabia Saudita, Yemen y Omán, donde la topografía altera la meteorología y el transporte de polvo, y el polvo transportado es forzado a canalizarse a través de los valles o es bloqueando a barlovento de las montañas. En este sentido, la simulación a más alta resolución reprodujo mejor el transporte del polvo alrededor de terrenos complejos. El tercer estudio investiga la capacidad del modelo para resolver haboobs mediante cinco simulaciones con diferentes resoluciones espaciales y usando tanto convección parametrizada como explícita, en una situación convectiva el 14/07/2011 en África Occidental. Las simulaciones parametrizadas resultaron limitadas para resolver haboobs porque tienden a eliminar la inestabilidad atmosférica, especialmente en eventos con convección orográfica. Esto da como resultado una precipitación más temprana y abundante que en comparación con simulaciones explícitas. Los haboobs y sus procesos asociados, como la convección húmeda, los "cold pools" y las corrientes de densidad, están bien desarrollados en simulaciones explícitas a 3 km, pero a resolución más gruesas (p. ej., 10 km), estos procesos resultan menos intensos y en el caso del desarrollo vertical del frente del haboob es pobremente reproducido.

The decrease of biological diversity from low latitudes near the equator towards high latitudes is one of the most fundamental patterns noted in ecology. These trends have been the subject of numerous terrestrial and marine studies and have caused the proposal of several explanatory hypotheses. No single hypothesis has adequately accounted for these observed trends. Furthermore, large-scale patterns are frequently modified by processes acting at meso- to small-scales. It is imperative to understand the interaction of these processes to elucidate the mechanisms controlling the structure of intertidal assemblages. The main aim of this thesis was to test the influence of multiple processes at a range of spatial scales on biogenic engineers. Biogenic engineers, such as macroalgae, have been reported to be strongly influenced by processes such as grazing, biogeography and upwelling and subsequent effects are expected to be linked to their associated assemblages. I used infaunal assemblages associated with macroalgae as a model system to understand the interactive effects of meso-scale upwelling in conjunction with large-scale factors (regional and biogeographic). Three species of macroalgae, Hypnea spicifera, Champia lumbricalis and Bifurcaria brassicaeformis, inhabiting different but overlapping home ranges were used in this study. Smaller scale, physical attributes and the associated fauna of these algal species were compared. The effects of meso- to large-scale physical gradients on marine organisms have been investigated in many instances and resultant gradients in physical variables observed. This study was undertaken to investigate morphological trends exhibited by Hypnea spicifera and Champia lumbricalis to compare possible similarities between coastlines and to determine if inferred meso- to large-scale processes influence physical trends in a similar manner despite the coastlines being affected by different hydrodynamic processes. The macroalgae were located in two distinctly different upwelling regimes, Hypnea spicifera on the east and south coasts and Champia lumbricalis on the west coast. Upwelling (delivery of nutrients and primary production) was not found to be an important factor in determining the physical characteristics of macroalgae but there were clear patterns linked to latitude. Mean percentage cover of Hypnea spicifera was positively correlated with distance along the east and south coasts. Mean mass and mean surface area of H. spicifera were, however, negatively correlated with distance from Port St Johns. Mean frond length showed a negative trend but this relationship was not statistically significant. On the west coast, there was a significant increase in mean frond length from north to south for Champia lumbricalis. Mean surface area and mean mass of C. lumbricalis exhibited non-significant negative trends from north to south while there was a non-significant positive trend for mean percentage cover. Following the “Productivity Hypothesis”, these patterns from north to south along the coastlines of South Africa could have important implications for biodiversity associated with these algae. Many previous studies have focussed on the effects of upwelling on species (i.e. effects of nutrients and temperature) but have failed to separate this effect from large scale effects such as biogeography and latitudinal gradients. I tested the influence meso-scale upwelling, large-scale biogeographic processes and latitudinal gradients with two different species of macroalgae one on the east and south coasts of South Africa and the other on the west coast. Hypnea spicifera inhabits the east and south coasts of South Africa spanning two biogeographic provinces and is generally affected by relatively weak upwelling, whereas Champia lumbricalis inhabits the west coast spanning one biogeographic province which is subjected to intense persistent upwelling year round. Within the east and west coast biogeographic provinces there are, however, regions with both upwelling and non-upwelling. On the east and south coasts, entire assemblages differed significantly among the three Regions (St Lucia, Port Alfred and Knysna, while assemblages between upwelling/non-upwelling areas were not different. Assemblages on the different shores differed significantly from each other. There were no significant effects of region or upwelling for the number of individuals of Crustacea or Polychaeta, while Mollusca showed a significant effect of region. The number of individuals of other taxa showed a significant interaction of region and upwelling. Region had a significant effect on number of species of molluscs and other taxa, while there was no effect for either region or upwelling for the Crustacea or Polychaeta. In general different factors were shown to be important (region and shore) while upwelling was rarely important. On the west coast assemblages associated with C. lumbricalis were not influenced by region or upwelling but there were significant differences between shores. Region, upwelling ad shore did not affect number of individuals. There was a significant interaction of region and upwelling for the number of species of crustaceans, while numbers of species of Mollusca, Polychaeta and other taxa showed no effects. In general, regional factors strongly influenced most organisms, while upwelling played a minor role. Hypotheses about differences between upwelling and non-upwelling regions in terms of species abundances and composition due to the input of cold nutrient rich water were not supported. A link between the effects of larger-scale biogeographic factors and their influence on habitat forming taxa and the resultant effects on associated infauna would be a likely explanation for the patterns observed in this study. Diversity of assemblages is known to be influenced by the structural complexity of a habitat, increasing complexity increases the amount of available niches therefore potentially increasing the number of species found within that habitat. Three species of macroalgae, Hypnea spicifera, Champia lumbricalis and Bifurcaria brassicaeformis were selected on the basis of being structurally similar and having their distributional ranges overlap in order to elucidate the effects of structure and macroalgal species on associated assemblages. Hypnea spicifera is different in terms of surface area and biomass from Champia lumbricalis and Bifurcaria brassicaeformis. Assemblages of species found on the three rhodophytes showed both shore and the species of alga had significant effects on composition. Only numbers of individuals of molluscs were affected by the species of alga. Crustacea and Polychaeta showed an interaction of the species of alga with shore. In the case of this study, it is likely that the three species of macroalgae mitigate biological stressors such as predation and physical stressors such as wave exposure and desiccation. In general, meso-scale upwelling is suggested to be marginalised when considering the structuring of assemblages associated with macroalgae, while large scale biogeography has more of an influence. Within shores, assemblages were also strongly influenced by smaller-scale factors such as differences in the structure and species of alga. This study indicates the importance of investigating patterns across a range of spatial scales to gain a comprehensive understanding of factors influencing intertidal organisms.

Les distributions d'espèces observées dans un environnement hétérogène résultent de plusieurs processus déterministes et stochastiques agissant comme des filtres pour contraindre la coexistence des espèces. L’action successive de ces processus a pour conséquence directe de structurer spatialement la composition des communautés et la variation de ces compositions (i.e., diversité bêta). Un des objectifs majeurs de l'écologie des communautés et métacommunautés consiste à identifier et quantifier les effets respectifs de ces différents processus sur la diversité bêta des communautés afin de mieux comprendre et prédire la distribution de la biodiversité. L'expérimentation étant difficilement possible, les processus responsables de la variation spatiale de la composition des communautés sont généralement inférés à partir des structures spatiales des distributions d’espèces observées dans la nature. La thèse s’inscrit dans ce contexte et vise à améliorer les outils de statistique multivariée permettant d’identifier et quantifier l'effet des processus écologiques structurant les communautés et métacommunautés. En particulier, il est proposé d’intégrer les échelles écologiques et les modèles nuls contraints pour étudier l’effet de l’environnement. La décomposition des relations trait-environnement dans les échelles spatiales et phylogénétiques permet une étude plus approfondie du filtrage environnemental en associant son échelle spatiale d’action au signal phylogénétique des traits sélectionnés pour capturer l’histoire évolutive associée au filtrage environnemental. L’interprétation en terme de processus évolutifs est néanmoins limitée et mériterait l’intégration de modèles nuls phylogénétiquement contraints pour une analyse plus fine. Dans la continuité, des modèles nuls spatialement contrains ont été développés et intégrés à deux analyses multivariées très largement utilisées en écologie des communautés (i.e., partitionnement de variation et test de Mantel) pour estimer et tester l’effet de l’environnement sur les assemblages d’espèces. Ces deux analyses présentaient une surestimation de leur statistique mesurée ainsi qu’un taux anormal de faux positifs lorsque les distributions d’espèces (via processus de dispersion limitée) et l’environnement étaient indépendamment spatialement structurés. L’intégration de modèles nuls spatialement contraints a permis d’ajuster à la fois les estimations et les tests de ces deux analyses illustrant ainsi le besoin d’utiliser des modèles nuls écologiquement contraints pour une identification et quantification correctes des processus écologiques
Species distributions observed in an heterogeneous environment result from multiple deterministic and stochastic processes acting as filters to constrain species co-existence. As a direct consequence, the successive actions of these processes spatially structure communities composition and the variation of these compositions (i.e., beta-diversity). One of the major objective in community and metacommunity ecology is to identify and quantify the respective effects of these different processes on communities beta-diversity to better understand and predict the distribution of biodiversity. Experiments being hardly possible, processes responsible for the spatial variation of communities composition are generally inferred from spatial patterns of species distributions observed in nature. In this context, the thesis aims at improving multivariate statistical tools conducted to identify and quantify the effects of ecological processes shaping communities and metacommunities. In particular, this thesis proposes to integrate ecological scales and constrained null models to study the effect of environment.Decomposing trait-environment relationships through spatial and phylogenetic scales allows to further study environmental filtering. The association of spatial scales involved in environmental filtering with the phylogenetic signals of traits allowed to capture the evolutive history related to environmental filtering. The interpretation in terms of evolutive processes is however limited and phylogenetically-constrained null models should be considered to improve the analysis. Following on from this work, spatially-constrained null models were developed and integrated into two multivariate analyses widely used in community ecology (i.e., variation partitioning and Mantel tests) to estimate and test the effect of environmental filtering on species assemblages. Both approaches presented overestimation of their computed statistic as well as high rates of false positive when species distributions (via limited dispersal) and environmental conditions were independently spatially structured. Integrating spatially-constrained null models allowed to adjust both their tests and the values of their statistic, as such demonstrating the need of using ecologically-constrained null models to correctly identify and quantify ecological processes.For future works, the thesis suggests that adopting a scaling approach to study ecological processes in addition to mechanistic null models could offer the possibility to distinguish processes from one another

Research has shown that aggressive children demonstrate a bias toward attributing hostility to peers in unwarranted circumstances. This bias has been found to be associated with speed of responding and recall of hostile cues. This study aimed to develop a scale to investigate the role of similar cognitive biases in the decisionmaking processes of adult psychopaths. The development of the scale to measure the decision-making processes involved in adults when dealing with ambiguous situations is described, and normative data provided for 56 normal adults. The role of recall of hostile information in the decision-making process is examined, as are the effects of the amount of information used to make a decision. The results show the presence of similar biases to those found in children, namely - those individuals who encode and thus recall more hostile information tend to interpret ambiguous situations in a more hostile manner and make more unwarranted hostile decisions, especially when they make their decisions quickly and based on little information. Although in adults it seems this process is not related specifically to hostile individuals, when high levels of hostility are combined with quick responding this leads to these individuals making the most unwarranted hostile decisions of all. It is also shown that slowing down the decision-making process and instructing individuals to attend to all available information before making a decision results in marked improvements in accuracy of decisions made and reduces the number of unwarranted hostile decisions made. The results are discussed in relation to Dodge's (1986) social information processing model, and implications for treatment are highlighted.

Il presente elaborato di tesi è frutto dell’attività di tirocinio svolta presso l’azienda modenese HPE COXA che opera nel settore dei servizi per l’ingegneria. Più nello specifico, lo svolgimento del tirocinio è avvenuto nel recente centro Metal Additive: centro di ricerca sull’Additive Manufacturing nato nell'ottobre 2017 e tuttora in fase di sviluppo. L’attività è svolta nell'ambito di simulazione del processo di Selective Laser Melting (SLM), tramite software commerciale Msc Simufact.Additive. Lo scopo dell’attività è stato quello di rendere la simulazione il più possibile in linea con il comportamento reale dei pezzi stampati. Di base il software ha una buona previsione dei fenomeni distorsivi, scaturiti principalmente dai forti gradienti termici che si sviluppano durante il processo di SLM, ma la quantità numerica di questi fenomeni deve essere tarata tramite specifici parametri di processo. Proprio sulla taratura di questi parametri di processo è incentrato il lavoro svolto. La simulazione di processo si colloca a monte della stampa, come uno strumento utile alla previsione di eventuali criticità durante la stampa. Queste criticità nella maggior parte dei casi portano all'interruzione del processo di produzione, con conseguente perdita di materiale e tempo, di vitale importanza nel mondo industriale. La principale sfida che si pone davanti agli sviluppatori di software dedicati alla simulazione del processo di SLM è sicuramente il tempo di calcolo, poiché la natura microscopica dei fenomeni in gioco porta ad avere mesh nell'ordine dei decimi di millimetro. Dunque, senza una strategia o semplificazione a monte dell’impostazione del modello la simulazione non è fattibile, nemmeno con le più avanzate risorse hardware.

Nel corso degli ultimi decenni, i processi industriali hanno subito una sempre maggiore automatizzazione e una crescente connessione con reti esterne. Nell’industria di processo, dove il livello di automazione è sempre stato elevato, l’innovazione tecnologica ha richiesto sempre una maggiore interconnessione tra i sistemi di produzione e sistemi esterni di gestione. La connessione dei sistemi ha portato a una crescita economica, ottimizzazione dei processi e un aumento della velocità di produzione, dovuti alla gestione dei controlli del processo e dei dati di funzionamento; ciò però, ha portato anche a esporre l’azienda a rischi per la sicurezza da attacchi informatici. Le minacce alla sicurezza sui sistemi di controllo automatizzato industriale stanno diventando una preoccupazione crescente per tutti gli impianti industriali, in particolare per quelli in cui grandi quantità di sostanze pericolose sono immagazzinate o manipolate. Lo scopo di questa tesi è verificare l’applicabilità e l’efficacia di due metodologie proposte per l’identificazione degli scenari che possono avere luogo in seguito alla manipolazione dannosa (eseguita da remoto o in seguito ad accesso fisico nella sala controllo) del sistema di controllo e sicurezza di un impianto di processo: PHAROS (Process Hazard Analysis of Remote manipulations through the cOntrol System) e POROS (Process Operability analysis of Remote manipulations through the cOntrol System). PHAROS permette d’ identificare gli eventi pericolosi originati dalle apparecchiature di processo, che possono essere innescati attraverso una manipolazione malevola dei BPCS e del SIS; mentre POROS mira all'individuazione dei top event che possono portare all'arresto dell'impianto e alla conseguente interruzione della produttività per un certo periodo di tempo, causata da una manipolazione malevola.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada
Real-time data processing of telemetry data has evolved from a highly centralized single large scale computer system to multiple mini-computers or super mini-computers tied together in a loosely coupled distributed network. Each mini-computer or super mini-computer essentially performing a single function in the real-time processing sequence of events. The reasons in the past for this evolution are many and varied. This paper will review some of the more significant factors in that evolution and will present some alternatives to a fully distributed mini-computer network that appear to offer significant real-time data processing advantages.

In the design of a multi-processor System-on-a-Chip (SoC), the bus architecture typically comes to the forefront because the system performance is not dependent only on the speed of the Processing Elements (PEs) but also on the bus architecture in the system. An efficient bus architecture with effective arbitration for reducing contention on the bus plays an important role in maximizing performance. Therefore, among many issues of multi-processor SoC research, we focus on two issues related to the bus architecture in this dissertation. One issue is how to quickly and easily design an efficient bus architecture for an SoC. The second issue is how to quickly explore the design space across performance influencing factors to achieve a high performance bus system. The objective of this research is to provide a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tool with which the user can quickly explore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) bus design space in search of a high performance SoC bus system. From a straightforward description of the numbers and types of Processing Elements (PEs), non-PEs, memories and buses (including, for example, the address and data bus widths of the buses and memories), our Bus Synthesis tool, called BusSynth, generates a Register-Transfer Level (RTL) Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) description of the specified bus system. The user can utilize this RTL Verilog in bus-accurate simulations to more quickly arrive at an efficient bus architecture for a multi-processor SoC. The methodology we propose gives designers a great benefit in fast design space exploration of bus systems across a variety of performance influencing factors such as bus types, PE types and software programming styles (e.g., pipelined parallel fashion or functional parallel fashion). We also show that BusSynth can efficiently generate bus systems in a matter of seconds as opposed to weeks of design effort to integrate together each system component by hand. Moreover, unlike the previous related work, BusSynth can support a wide variety of PEs, memory types and bus architectures (including a hybrid bus architecture) in search of a high performance SoC.