This thesis investigates several different aspects of the physics of few state quantum systems and their use in information processing applications. The main focus is performing high precision computations or experiments using imperfect quantum systems. Specifically looking at methods to calibrate a quantum system once it has been manufactured or performing useful tasks, using a quantum system with only limited spatial or temporal coherence. / A novel method for characterising an unknown two-state Hamiltonian is presented which is based on the measurement of coherent oscillations. The method is subsequently extended to include the effects of decoherence and enable the estimation of uncertainties. Using the uncertainty estimates, the achievable precision for a given number of measurements is computed. This method is tested experimentally using the nitrogen-vacancy defect in diamond as an example of a two-state quantum system of interest for quantum information processing. The method of characterisation is extended to higher dimensional systems and this is illustrated using the Heisenberg interaction between spins as an example. / The use of buried donors in silicon is investigated as an architecture for realising quantum-dot cellular automata as an example of quantum systems used for classical information processing. The interaction strengths and time scales are calculated and both coherent and incoherent evolution are assessed as possible switching mechanisms. The effects of decoherence on the operation of a single cell and the scaling behaviour of a line of cells is investigated. / The use of type-II quantum computers for simulating classical systems is studied as an application of small scale quantum computing. An algorithm is developed for simulating the classical Ising model using Metropolis Monte-Carlo where random number generation is incorporated using quantum superposition. This suggests that several new algorithms could be developed for a type-II quantum computer based on probabilistic cellular automata.

Thesis (Ph. D., Bioinformatics and Computational Biology)--University of Idaho, December 2006. / Major professor: Robert B. Heckendorn. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-71). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 5, 2009). Thesis advisor: Shih-Lung Shaw. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2010. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-58).

Thesis (D. M. A.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 133 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / This paper presents a method for generating estimates of temporal changes in the surrounding area of a highway located in the Amazon, using the technique Cellular Automata and explanatory variables, only attributes of the land. The proposed model uses vector images (obtained from the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil), which are converted to grid type files â raster image, representing a series of spatial changes in the region of study. With this proposition, it is expected to assist decision makers in order to meet the requests of CONAMA Resolution 01, relating to environmental impacts, more specifically, as regards the construction of models which consider scenarios with and without the project, and that the process of construction / rehabilitation of roads can be made in view of the legal norms in order to minimize potential environmental and social impacts. The model generated from the CAs showed promise in generating future estimates of deforestation and a good quantitative and qualitative indicators to support the decision making process to consider future deforestation being caused by construction and / or paving of road in the Amazon. / Este trabalho apresenta um mÃtodo para a estimativa de mudanÃas espaÃo temporais no entorno de uma rodovia localizada na AmazÃnia, utilizando para tanto a tÃcnica AutÃmatos Celulares adaptada em ambiente SIG, onde as variÃveis explicativas do modelo serÃo somente os atributos do terreno. O modelo proposto usa imagens vetoriais (obtidas junto ao Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais) que posteriormente sÃo convertidas para arquivos tipo grid â em formato raster, com a sÃrie histÃrica das mudanÃas espaciais na regiÃo objeto de estudo. Espera-se auxiliar os tomadores de decisÃo no atendimento das solicitaÃÃes da resoluÃÃo CONAMA 01/86 relativas à concepÃÃo de modelos que considerem cenÃrios com e sem o empreendimento, e que os processos de construÃÃo/recuperaÃÃo de rodovias possam ser realizados atendendo Ãs normas legais, visando minimizar os potenciais impactos sÃcio ambientais. O modelo gerado a partir dos ACs mostrou-se promissor na geraÃÃo de estimativas futuras de desmatamento e um bom indicador quantitativo e qualitativo para suporte no processo de tomada de decisÃo que pondere o desmatamento futuro a ser causado pela construÃÃo e/ou pavimentaÃÃo de uma rodovia na AmazÃnia.

As the number of vehicles on our roads increases, the problems related to this phenomenon emerge more dramatically. These problems include car accidents, congestions and CO2 emissions production, increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. In order to minimize these impacts and to use the road infrastructure eff ectively, the use of traffic simulators can come in handy. Thanks to these tools, it is possible to evaluate the evolution of a traffic flow with various initial states of the simulation and thus know what to do and how to react in different states of the real-world traffic situations. This thesis deals with acceleration of microscopic urban traffic simulation using OpenCL. Supposing it is necessary to simulate a large network traffic, the need to accelerate the simulation is necessary. For this purpose, it is possible, for example, to use the graphics processing units (GPUs) and the technique of GPGPU for general purpose computations, which is used in this work. The results show that the performance gains of GPUs are significant compared to a parallel implementation on CPU.

The growing number of applications of composite materials in aerospace and naval structures along with advancements in manufacturing technologies demand continuous innovations in the design of composite structures. In the traditional design of composite laminates, fiber orientation angles are constant for each layer and are usually limited to 0, 90, and ±45 degrees. To fully benefit from the directional properties of composite laminates, such limitations have to be removed. The concept of variable-stiffness laminates allows the stiffness properties to vary spatially over the laminate. Through tailoring of fiber orientations and laminate thickness spatially in an optimal fashion, mechanical properties of a part can be improved. In this thesis, the optimal design of variable-stiffness fiber-reinforced composite laminates is studied using an emerging numerical engineering optimization scheme based on the cellular automata paradigm. A cellular automaton (CA) based design scheme uses local update rules for both field variables (displacements) and design variables (lay-up configuration and laminate density measure) in an iterative fashion to convergence to an optimal design. In the present work, the displacements are updated based on the principle of local equilibrium and the design variables are updated according to the optimality criteria for minimum compliance design. A closed form displacement update rule for constant thickness isotropic continua is derived, while for the general anisotropic continua with variable thickness a numeric update rule is used. Combined lay-up and topology design of variable-stiffness flat laminates is performed under the action of in-plane loads and bending loads. An optimality criteria based formulation is used to obtain local design rules for minimum compliance design subject to a volume constraint. It is shown that the design rule splits into a two step application. In the first step an optimal lay-up configuration is computed and in the second step the density measure is obtained. The spatial lay-up design problem is formulated using both fiber angles and lamination parameters as design variables. A weighted average formulation is used to handle multiple load case designs. Numerical studies investigate the performance of the proposed design methodology. The optimal lay-up configuration is independent of the lattice density with more details emerging as the density is increased. Moreover, combined topology and lay-up designs are free of checkerboard patterns. The lay-up design problem is also solved using lamination parameters instead of the fiber orientation angles. The use of lamination parameters has two key features: first, the convexity of the minimization problem guarantees a global minimum; second, for both in-plane and bending problems it limits the number of design variables to four regardless of the actual number of layers, thereby simplifying the optimization task. Moreover, it improves the convergence rate of the iterative design scheme as compared to using fiber angles as design variables. Design parametrization using lamination parameters provides a theoretically better design, however, manufacturability of the designs is not certain. The cases of general, balanced symmetric, and balanced symmetric with equal thickness layers are studied separately. The feasible domain for laminates with equal thickness layers is presented for an increasing number of layers. A restricted problem is proposed that maintains the convexity of the design space for laminates with equal thickness layers. A recursive formulation for computing fiber angles for this case is also presented. On the computational side of the effort, a parallel version of the present CA formulation is implemented on message passing multiprocessor clusters. A standard parallel implementation does not converge for an increased number of processors. Detailed analysis revealed that the convergence problem is due to a Jacobi type iteration scheme, and a pure Gauss-Seidel type iteration through a pipeline implementation completely resolved the convergence problem. Timing results giving the speedup for the pipeline implementation were obtained for up to 260 processors. This work was supported by Grant NAG-1-01105 from NASA Langley Research Center. Special thanks to our project monitor Dr. Damodar R. Ambur for his technical guidance. / Ph. D.

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