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No description available.

Borehole induced structures seen in image logs from the Coso Geothermal Field, CA record variation in the azimuth of principal stress. Image logs of these structures from five boreholes were analyzed to quantify the stress heterogeneity for three geologically distinct locations: two boreholes within the Coso Geothermal Field (one in an actively produced volume), two on the margin of the Coso Geothermal Field and outside the production area, and a control borehole several tens of kilometers south of the Coso Geothermal Field. Average directions of Shmin and its standard deviation are similar along the eastern portion of the geothermal field at ~107 ± 28°; this is distinct from the western portion which has an azimuth of 081 ± 18° and also distinct from outside the geothermal field where the average azimuth is 092 ± 47°. These relationships suggest a correlation of stress orientation and heterogeneity with slip on the Coso Wash fault, suggesting that ~20 years of production has not affected the Shmin.orientation. The slope of power spectrum quantifies the length-scale dependence of stress rotations for the volume of the brittle crust penetrated by each borehole. Spectral analysis was applied to the depth variation of stress direction and it demonstrates that: (1) the data set contains distinct wavelengths of stress rotation, (2) that the relative power of these wavelengths in the total scaling of stress directions demonstrates a fractal distribution and (3) in a manner consistent with earthquakes causing the stress rotations. While the vertically averaged Shmin orientation for the three eastern boreholes varied by as little as 1°, the spectral slopes varied by 0.4 log (deg2 *m)(m) from the inside to the margin unproduced areas of the Coso Geothermal Field. The two boreholes inside the field had spectral slopes within one standard deviation, even though Shmin orientations were not parallel. These results suggest that at the kilometer length scale, the source of stress heterogeneity is dominated by proximity to recent fault slip, whereas the centimeter to meter stress heterogeneity is dominated by earthquake activity. / Geology

With the proliferation of renewable energy and its integration into the modern power grid, we face some new issues. Aside from the increased switching rate, which results in faster dynamic behavior, realistic models for these Inverter-Based Resources (IBRs) are not widely available. This complicates researching the behavior of this quickly changing system, and without proper models, simulations may not be totally reliable. To address this, it is recommended that measurement data be used, which includes the entire grid and all of its unique characteristics. Signal processing techniques have been employed exclusively to construct spectrograms, which are time-frequency representations of a signal's spectral information. These spectrograms show ridges that represent the system's changing modes. It can be extremely beneficial to track these modes and generate labeled data representing the evolution of modes as the system evolves. This labeled data can aid in the development of correlation and causation hypotheses linking specific abnormal behaviors to proximity to instability. This can also assist analyze these IBRs and identify flaws in their modeling. This thesis describes a step-by-step process for creating spectrograms, reducing them for better visualization, and then estimating mode evolution with a ridge-tracking algorithm based on penalized jump criteria. The results show that the tracker works effectively with both synthetic and real PMU data. / Master of Science / By 2050, the number of electric cars on the road will increase almost tenfold, and renewable energy will make up almost 50% of the global power mix. While this is great news for the environment, it also poses new challenges to the power sector in ensuring the reliable delivery of clean energy. To address this, we need to collect real-time information about the system. A spectrogram is a visual representation of the power grid's dynamic behavior, providing essential information about frequency and power. Despite its extensive use in biomedical data, this tool is not used much in the power system industry. Spectrograms can be used as a forensic tool or preventive measure to detect system instability. Our project aims to track the system's dynamic behavior using ambient data, which is shown to be rich in information. The proposed algorithm suggests a detailed step-by-step methodology to use this tool for system identification and monitoring. The work's novelty lies in the tracking algorithm developed to identify and track the spectral components in a time-frequency representation.

Previous studies have shown that spectral analysis based on force data can elucidate fundamental physical phenomena during chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). While it has not been literally described elsewhere, such analysis was partly motivated by modern violinmakers and physicists studying Old Italian violins, who were trying to discover spectral relations to sound quality. In this paper, we draw parallels between violins and CMP as far as functionality and spectral characteristics are concerned. Inspired by the de facto standard of violin testing via hammer strikes on the base edge of a violin's bridge, we introduce for the first time, a mobility plot for the polisher by striking the wafer carrier head of a CMP polisher with a hammer. Results show three independent peaks that can indeed be attributed to the polisher's natural resonance. Extending our study to an actual CMP process, similar to hammered and bowed violin tests, at lower frequencies the hammered and polished mobility peaks are somewhat aligned. At higher frequencies, peak alignment becomes less obvious and the peaks become more isolated and defined in the case of the polished wafer spectrum. Lastly, we introduce another parameter from violin testing known as directivity, , which in our case, we define as the ratio of shear force variance to normal force variance acquired during CMP. Results shows that under identical polishing conditions, increases with the polishing removal rate.

This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, we study a class of special functions Aik (y), k = 2, 4, 6, ··· generalising the classical Airy function Ai(y) to higher orders and in the second part, we apply expressions and properties of Ai4(y) to spectral problem of a specific operator. The first part is however motivated by latter part. We establish regularity properties of Aik (y) and particularly show that Aik (y) is smooth, bounded, and extends to the complex plane as an entire function, and obtain pointwise bounds on Aik (y) for all k. Some analytic properties of Aik (y) are also derived allowing one to express Aik (y) as a finite sum of certain generalised hypergeometric functions. We further obtain full asymptotic expansions of Aik (y) and their first derivative Ai'(y) both for y > 0 and for y < 0. Using these expansions, we derive expressions for the negative real zeroes of Aik (y) and Ai'(y). Using expressions and properties of Ai4(y), we extensively study spectral properties of a non-local operator H whose physical interpretation is the massless relativistic quartic anharmonic oscillator in one dimension. Various spectral results for H are derived including estimates of eigenvalues, spectral gaps and trace formula, and a Weyl-type asymptotic relation. We study asymptotic behaviour, analyticity, and uniform boundedness properties of the eigenfunctions Ψn(x) of H. The Fourier transforms of these eigenfunctions are expressed in two terms, one involving Ai4(y) and another term derived from Ai4(y) denoted by Āi4(y). By investigating the small effect generated by Āi4(y) this work shows that eigenvalues λn of H are exponentially close, with increasing n Ε N, to the negative real zeroes of Ai4(y) and those of its first derivative Ai'4(y) arranged in alternating and increasing order of magnitude. The eigenfunctions Ψ(x) are also shown to be exponentially well-approximated by the inverse Fourier transform of Ai4(|y| - λn) in its normalised form.

Les recherches récapitulées dans cette thèse de doctorat ont porté sur les causes de l’organisation spatiale des végétations périodiques. Ces structures paysagères aux motifs réguliers, tachetés, tigrés ou labyrinthiques, d’échelle décamétrique à hectométrique, couvrant des étendues considérables sur au moins trois continents, constituent un cas d’école dans l’étude des processus endogènes présidant à l’hétérogénéité du couvert végétal. Ces structures prennent place sur un substrat homogène, mis à part la rétroaction du couvert lui-même, et sont marquées par des écotones abrupts et la persistance d’une proportion considérable de sol nu. Plusieurs modèles ont mis en avant l’existence possible d’un phénomène d’auto-organisation du couvert, qui verrait une structure d’ensemble émerger des interactions locales entre individus. Ces modèles se basent sur le jeu simultané de la consommation de la ressource (compétition) et de l’amélioration de l’un ou l’autre des éléments du bilan de la même ressource par le couvert (facilitation). La condition à l’existence d’une structure d’ensemble spatialement périodique et stable réside dans une différence entre la portée de la compétition (plus grande) et celle de la facilitation. L’apparition de ces structures est modulée par le taux de croissance biologique, qui est le reflet des contraintes extérieures telles que l’aridité, le pâturage ou la coupe de bois. Le modus operandi des interactions spatiales supposées entre individus reste largement à préciser. Nos recherches ont été menées au sud-ouest de la République du Niger, à l’intérieur et dans les environs du parc Régional du W. Trois axes ont été explorés : (i) Une étude de la dépendance spatiale entre la structure de la végétation (biovolumes cartographiés) et les paramètres du milieu abiotique (relief, sol), sur base d’analyses spectrales et cross-spectrales par transformée de Fourier (1D et 2D). (ii) Une étude diachronique (1956, 1975 et 1996) à large échelle (3000 km²) de l’influence de l’aridité et des pressions d’origine anthropique sur l’auto-organisation des végétations périodiques, basée sur la caractérisation de la structure spatiale des paysages sur photos aériennes via la transformée de Fourier en 2D. (iii) Trois études portant sur les interactions spatiales entre individus : En premier lieu, via l’excavation des systèmes racinaires (air pulsé) ; Ensuite, par un suivi spatio-temporel du bilan hydrique du sol (blocs de gypse) ; Enfin, via le marquage de la ressource par du deutérium. Nous avons ainsi pu établir que les végétations périodiques constituent bien un mode d’auto-organisation pouvant survenir sur substrat homogène et modulé par les contraintes climatiques et anthropiques. Un ajustement rapide entre l’organisation des végétations périodiques et le climat a pu être montrée en zone protégée. La superficie et l’organisation des végétations périodiques y ont tour à tour progressé et régressé en fonction d’épisodes secs ou humides. Par contre, en dehors de l’aire protégée, la possibilité d’une restauration du couvert semble fortement liée au taux d’exploitation des ressources végétales. Ces résultats ont d’importantes implications quant à la compréhension des interactions entre climat et écosystèmes et à l’évaluation de leurs capacités de charge. La caractérisation de la structure spatiale des végétations arides, notamment par la transformée de Fourier d’images HR, devrait être généralisée comme outil de monitoring de l’état de ces écosystèmes. Nos études portant sur les modes d’interactions spatiales ont permis de confirmer l’existence d’une facilitation à courte portée du couvert végétal sur la ressource. Cependant, cette facilitation ne semble pas s’exercer sur le terme du bilan hydrique traditionnellement avancé, à savoir l’infiltration, mais plutôt sur le taux d’évaporation (deux fois moindre à l’ombre des canopées). Ce mécanisme exclut l’existence de transferts diffusifs souterrains entre sols nu et fourrés. Des transferts inverses semblent d’ailleurs montrés par le marquage isotopique. L’étude du bilan hydrique et la cartographie du micro-relief, ainsi que la profondeur fortement réduite de la zone d’exploitation racinaire, jettent de sérieux doutes quant au rôle communément admis des transferts d’eau par ruissellement/diffusion de surface en tant que processus clé dans la compétition à distance entre les plantes. L’alternative réside dans l’existence d’une compétition racinaire de portée supérieure aux canopées. Cette hypothèse trouve une confirmation tant par les rhizosphères excavées, superficielles et étendues, que dans le marquage isotopique, montrant des contaminations d’arbustes situés à plus de 15 m de la zone d’apport. De même, l’étude du bilan hydrique met en évidence les influences simultanées et contradictoires (facilitation/compétition) des ligneux sur l’évapotranspiration. / This PhD thesis gathers results of a research dealing with the causes of the spatial organisation of periodic vegetations. These landscape structures, featuring regular spotted, labyrinthine or banded patterns of decametric to hectometric scale, and extending over considerable areas on at least three continents, constitute a perfect study case to approach endogenous processes leading to vegetation heterogeneities. These patterns occur over homogeneous substratum, except for vegetation’s own feedbacks, and are marked by sharp ecotones and the persistence of a considerable amount of bare soil. A number of models suggested a possible case of self-organized patterning, in which the general structure would emerge from local interactions between individuals. Those models rest on the interplay of competitive and facilitative effects, relating to soil water consumption and to soil water budget enhancement by vegetation. A general necessary condition for pattern formation to occur is that negative interactions (competition) have a larger range than positive interactions (facilitation). Moreover, all models agree with the idea that patterning occurs when vegetation growth decreases, for instance as a result of reduced water availability, domestic grazing or wood cutting, therefore viewing patterns as a self-organised response to environmental constraints. However the modus operandi of the spatial interactions between individual plants remains largely to be specified. We carried out a field research in South-West Niger, within and around the W Regional Park. Three research lines were explored: (i) The study of the spatial dependency between the vegetation pattern (mapped biovolumes) and the factors of the abiotic environment (soil, relief), on the basis of spectral and cross-spectral analyses with Fourier transform (1D and 2D). (ii) A broad scale diachronic study (1956, 1975, 1996) of the influence of aridity and human induced pressures on the vegetation self-patterning, based on the characterisation of patterns on high resolution remote sensing data via 2D Fourier transform. (iii) Three different approaches of the spatial interactions between individuals: via root systems excavation with pulsed air; via the monitoring in space and time of the soil water budget (gypsum blocks method); and via water resource labelling with deuterated water. We could establish that periodic vegetations are indeed the result of a self-organisation process, occurring in homogeneous substratum conditions and modulated by climate and human constraints. A rapid adjustment between vegetation patterning and climate could be observed in protected zones. The area and patterning of the periodic vegetations successively progressed and regressed, following drier or wetter climate conditions. On the other hand, outside protected areas, the restoration ability of vegetation appeared to depend on the degree of vegetation resource exploitation. These results have important implications regarding the study of vegetation-climate interactions and the evaluation of ecosystems’ carrying capacities. Spatial pattern characterisation in arid vegetations using Fourier transform of HR remote sensing data should be generalised for the monitoring of those ecosystems. Our studies dealing with spatial interaction mechanisms confirmed the existence of a short range facilitation of the cover on water resource. However, this facilitation does not seem to act through the commonly accepted infiltration component, but rather on the evaporative rate (twice less within thickets). This mechanism excludes underground diffusive transfers between bare ground and vegetation. Inverse transfers were even shown by deuterium labelling. Water budget study and micro-elevation mapping, along with consistent soil shallowness, together cast serious doubts on the traditional mechanism of run-off/diffusion of surface water as a key process of the long range competition between plants. An alternative explanation lies in long range root competition. This hypothesis find support as well in the excavated root systems, shallow and wide, as in isotopic labelling, showing contaminations of shrubs located up to 15 m of the irrigated area. Water budget study also evidenced simultaneous contradictory effects (facilitation/competition) of shrubs on evapotranspiration.

The Ontario Clean Water Act (2006) mandated that eight and two municipal drinking water intakes in the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) and the Ganaraska River Source Protection Agency (GRSPA) jurisdictions respectively, be protected from contaminants released into the surrounding waters through the delineation of Intake Protection Zones (IPZs). Toward these objectives, the Estuary and Lake Computer Model (ELCOM) was applied to simulate the hydrodynamics and contaminant transport in the eastern Lake Ontario and upper St. Lawrence River. Model hydrodynamics were comprehensively validated against field data collected during April-October, 2006. The flow was found to be predominantly wind induced in the southwestern lacustrine portion of the domain and hydraulically driven in the northeastern riverine portion with storm events resulting in river flow reversals. The modeled surface currents were applied to delineate IPZs surrounding the drinking water intakes. Passive tracers were simulated as surrogates for combined sewer outflows, tributary flows, municipal/wastewater and industrial discharges identified by CRCA as threats to drinking water intakes. Wind was found to be the most dominant forcing to transport contaminants, both in the Kingston Basin and the St. Lawrence River, whereas the St. Lawrence River outflow was found to influence the transport of contaminants along the river. The hydrodynamics and contaminant transport in the near-shore region of Lake Ontario, from Port Hope to Cobourg was also simulated using ELCOM and the results were comprehensively validated against field data collected during April-September, 2010. Upwelling and downwelling events caused by south-westerly and north-easterly winds were found to be the predominant hydrodynamic process. These events generated barotropic geostrophic alongshore currents or ‘coastal jets’ of ~20 cm s-1. Discharges from river plumes and sewage treatment plants were simulated as tracer releases. The tracer concentrations were primarily influenced by the close proximity of the intakes to the effluent release points, the volume and direction of the discharge from the intakes and the physical processes driving the flow dynamics. / Thesis (Ph.D, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2013-07-17 11:41:54.68

<p>The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center estimates there are 12,500 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) in the United States every year (www.nscisc.uab.edu, 2014) and vehicular crashes are the leading cause. Spinal injuries can have extensive long term consequences leading to widespread social and economic costs as well as the human cost of living with chronic, sometimes debilitating, pain (Côté et al. 1998, Côté et al. 2001, Daffner et al. 2003, Harrop et al. 2001, Sekhon et al. 2001). Within the military population, spinal injuries are a common result of repeated loading from high-speed planing watercraft (Bass et al. 2005, Gollwitzer et al. 1995, Schmidt et al. 2012), high performance aircraft (Coakwell et al. 2004, de Oliviera et al. 2005), and underbody blast exposure (Vasquez et al. 2011, Wilson 2006). Therefore, there is interest within the automotive, military, and clinical communities to understand the biomechanics the failure mechanics of the osteoligamentous structures in the spine.</p><p>Acoustic emissions have been shown to be produced during micro-cracking of cortical bone (Kohn 1995). However, there has been minimal work utilizing acoustic emission to detect cortical and trabecular bone damage. The research in this dissertation developed experimental and analytic methods of sensitively assessing when failure (both micro-cracks and more extensive failures) occurs in the cervical spine using acoustic emissions. </p><p>The acoustic emissions from cortical and trabecular bone failure were characterized using a Welch power spectrum density estimate and continuous wavelet transform. The power spectrum density results showed both cortical bone and trabecular bone failure produced wideband acoustic emission signals with spectral peaks between from 20 kHz to 1380 kHz and 24 kHz to 1382 kHz respectively. The continuous wavelet transform showed the spectral content begins with high frequency content followed quickly by low frequency content, but the low frequency lasts for a longer time causing it to dominate the response in the Welch power spectrum density. The first frequency component in the continuous wavelet transform was used to characterize the signals and was found to form three distinct bands in the cortical bone tests (166 ± 52.6 kHz, 379 ± 37.2 kHz, and 668 ± 63.4 kHz) and one band in the trabecular bone tests (185 ± 37.9 kHz). Therefore, observing spectral content within these bands suggests failure of the respective bone.</p><p>This dissertation also uses continuous wavelet transform to identify failure in whole cervical spine compression tests. Whole cervical spines placed in a pre-flexed and pre-extended posture were compressed to induce failure while being monitored for acoustic emissions. Cortical bone failure was identified in the acoustic emissions when local maxima in the continuous wavelet transform fell within the spectral bands associated with cortical bone failure previously identified. The timing of these failures was matched to the force-displacement response to identify the initiation of failure and the major failure. Cortical bone failure was detected at 70-90% of the failure load suggesting that the failure occurs as an evolution from micro-cracks to the eventual major failure. Locating these micro-cracks before the major failure forms may be useful in the prediction of the location of failure.</p><p> This dissertation also presents a technique to calculate the AE source location for AEs generated from fracture. The primary obstacle for AE source localization in the spine is that the speed of sound is different in cortical bone (Prevrhal et al. 2001), trabecular bone (Cardoso et al. 2003), intervertebral disc (Pluijm et al. 2004), ligaments (Kijima et al. 2009), and also differs based on its direction of travel in cortical bone (Kann et al. 1993) and likely in the other materials. Any algorithm must account for these differences to obtain any useful level of accuracy. The algorithm presented in this dissertation is based on hyperbolic source location algorithms (De Ronde et al. 2007, O'Toole et al. 2012, Salinas et al. 2010) except that it iterates on the speed of sound over a specified range, and convergence is defined as when the solution change is minimized. This procedure calculated the AE source location with a mean error of 5.7 mm and a standard deviation of 3.8 mm.</p><p>The contributions and conclusions of this dissertation provide methodology and results to evaluate the failure mechanics in the spine. Although these procedures were developed for use in the spine, they are of great value to the biomechanics community because they are applicable to every body region. The recommendations presented will serve to better understand the failure mechanics of the human body and will likely lead to better defined and safer standards for protective equipment. It also provides data for the generation of finite element models that require failure criteria.</p> / Dissertation

Prematurity, especially if extreme, is one of the leading causes of problems and/or death after delivery. Among all the problems encountered by premature infants, feeding difficulties are very common. Many premature infants are fed intravenously at first, and they progress to milk feedings provided by a tube passed into the stomach. At around 34 weeks of gestation, premature infants should be able to breastfeed or take a bottle. At the same time such premature infants are usually faced with difficulty making the transition from tube-feeding to full oral feeding. In this study three physiological measurements of premature infants including sucking, swallowing and breathing were measured. The objective of this work was to detect, identify and classify these three signals independently and in relation to each other. The goal was to look at the specification of sucking, swallowing and breathing signals to extract the ratio of suck swallow-breath coordination. The results of this study were used to predict the readiness of a premature infant for introduction to oral feeding.To accomplish this, three different methods were examined. In the first method, the integration of the wavelet packet transform and a neural network was investigated. According to results of the first approach, integration of the wavelet packet transform and the neural network failed due to the inefficiency of the feature extraction method. Thus, the wavelet packet energy nodes did not provide a good feature extraction tool in this specific application.In the second approach, the frequency content of each signal was investigated to study the relationship between the shape of each waveform and the frequency content of that specific signal. Spectral analysis for suck, swallow and breathing signals showed that the shape of the signal was not tightly related to the frequency content of that specific waveform. Therefore, the frequency content could not be used as a method of feature extraction in this specific application.In the third method, the integration of correlation and matched filtering techniques was investigated and demonstrated promising result for the detection of suck and breathing signal but not for the swallowing waveform. Based on the results for sucking and breathing signals, this method should also work for good quality swallowing signal. To understand the relationship between the suck, swallow and breathing signals a matrix containing information on the time of occurrence of each event was developed.