Strawberries are an extremely perishable fruit mainly due to their soft texture and sensitivity to fungal infection. The fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea is responsible for grey mould on strawberries and is the main causal agent of postharvest decay and subsequent economic loss. As an alternative to fungicides, manipulation of plant nutrition, such as calcium and boron, has been suggested as a means of disease management. This project investigated the effects of calcium and boron application on fruit quality and grey mould development in strawberry. The effect of calcium on fruit quality, grey mould development and leaf blight in strawberry cultivars ‘Aromas’ and ‘Selva’ was investigated through preharvest and postharvest applications. To determine the effect of preharvest application, calcium sulphate in 0.25X strength Hoagland’s solution was applied at 0, 100, 300 and 500 ppm Ca through fertigation. Fully-ripened fruit were harvested and evaluated for postharvest quality at harvest and then after storage at 10⁰C, 90±5% RH for 2 to 10 days. Although fruit firmness of both cultivars declined slightly during storage, this was not affected by preharvest calcium application. Similarly, preharvest calcium treatment had no effect on the external appearance, pH, soluble solids content (SSC) or titratable acidity (TA). No grey mould development was observed on fruit at harvest when flowers were inoculated with a conidia suspension of B. cinerea (10⁴ conidia per mL). However, fruit harvested from plants that received calcium at any concentration had less incidence of grey mould during storage at 10⁰C, 90±5% RH for 14 days than fruit harvested from plants that received no calcium for both cultivars. For ‘Aromas’, 79% and 51% of fruit, and for ‘Selva’, 69% and 43% of fruit, showed rot when treated with 0 and 500 ppm Ca, respectively. The shelf life of ‘Aromas’ and ‘Selva’ increased by about 8% when plants received 500 ppm Ca in comparison with plants that received 0 ppm Ca. After 7 days of incubation at 22 to 24⁰C, there was no difference between blight lesions on wound-inoculated detached leaves from different calcium treatments for either cultivar. However, the lesions on ‘Selva’ were smaller than on ‘Aromas’. The calcium levels in leaves from plants that received calcium at any concentration were adequate for strawberry growing and significantly higher (P < 0.05) than in leaves from plants that received 0 ppm Ca. However, calcium treatment did not ensure transfer of calcium to fruit tissues. Calcium lactate and calcium chloride were used as postharvest calcium treatments at 1500, 3000 and 4500 ppm Ca. Fruit of ‘Selva’ were dipped in calcium solution for 5 min and wound-inoculated with B. cinerea (10⁶ conidia per mL). Calcium lactate and calcium chloride at 3000 and 4500 ppm Ca, respectively, were most effective in delaying Botrytis rot development on ‘Selva’ after 7 days of storage at 10⁰C, 90±5% RH. Storage for least 24 h after calcium dips prior to inoculation was required to delay the development of fruit rot. Fruit harvested early in the season seemed to be less susceptible to grey mould than those harvested later. However, calcium treatment tended to be more effective when applied to late-season fruit. Preharvest boron treatment, applied as for calcium but at 0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 ppm B, had no effect on fruit firmness of either cultivar. However, firmness of ‘Aromas’ fruit was slightly greater than ‘Selva’ fruit for all treatments. The amount of boron applied had no effect on the external appearance, pH, SSC or TA for either cultivar after storage of fruit for up to 10 days. Application of boron had no effect on fruit grey mould development in either cultivar. Furthermore, boron had minimal effect on the incidence of blight on woundinoculated detached leaves of ‘Aromas’ 7 days after inoculation. However, blight lesion diameters on ‘Selva’ leaves in the 1.0 ppm B treatment (8.0 mm) were significantly smaller (P < 0.001) than in the 0 ppm B treatment (13.0 mm). Phytotoxicity was observed in boron treatments even at the level considered optimum for strawberry growing. Severity increased with increasing boron concentration but no consistent effect on flower death or flower abortion was observed. In conclusion, strawberry is sensitive to boron toxicity. Calcium may enhance fruit firmness and, consequently, delay grey mould development if calcium penetrates the fruit. Postharvest calcium treatment tended to be more effective in delaying development of grey mould when applied to late-season fruit. Calcium lactate is a potential alternative to calcium chloride for reducing decay caused by B. cinerea in strawberry without providing undesirable bitterness. This finding may provide a basis for application in industry. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331382 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine 2008

This research deals with the modeling and control of a plasticating twin screw extruder (TSE) that will be used to obtain consistent product quality. The TSE is a widely used process technology for compounding raw polymers. Compounding creates a polymer with improved properties that satisfy the demand of modern plastic applications. Modeling and control of a TSE is challenging because of its high nonlinearity, inherent time delay, and multiple interactive dynamic behavior. A complete methodology is proposed in this thesis to design an advanced control scheme for a TSE. This methodology was used to develop a model predictive control scheme for a laboratory scale plasticating TSE and to implement the control scheme in real-time. The TSE has a processing length of 925 mm and a length to screw diameter ratio (L/D) of 37. High density polyethylenes with different melt indices were used as processing materials. Manipulated variables and disturbance variables were selected based on knowledge of the process. Controlled variables were selected using a selection method that includes a steady state correlation between process output variables and product quality variables, and dynamic considerations. Two process output variables, melt temperature (Tm) at the die and melt pressure (Pm) at the die, were selected as controlled variables. A new modeling approach was proposed to develop grey box models based on excitation in the extruder screw speed (N), one of the manipulated variables. The extruder was excited using a predesigned random binary sequence (RBS) type excitation in N and nonlinear models relating Tm and Pm to N were developed using this approach. System identification techniques were used to obtain model parameters. The obtained models have an autoregressive moving average with exogenous (ARMAX) input structure and the models explain the physics of the extrusion process successfully. The TSE was also excited using a predesigned RBS in the feed rate (F) as a manipulated variable. Models relating Tm and Pm to F were developed using a classical system identification technique; both models have ARMAX structures. The model between Pm and F was found to give excellent prediction for data obtained from a stair type excitation, indicating that the obtained models provide a good representation of the dynamics of the twin screw extruder. Analysis of the TSE open loop process indicated two manipulated variables, N and F, and two controlled variables, Tm and Pm. Thus, a model predictive controller (MPC) was designed using the developed models for this 2X2 system and implemented in real-time. The performance of the MPC was studied by checking its set-point tracking ability. The robustness of the MPC was also examined by imposing external disturbances. Finally, a multimodel operating regime was used to model Tm and N. The operating regime was divided based on the screw speed, N. Local models were developed using system identification techniques. The global model was developed by combining local models using fuzzy logic methodology. Simulated results showed excellent response of Tm for a wide operating range. A similar approach was used to design a global nonlinear proportional-integral controller (n-PI) and a nonlinear MPC (n-MPC). Both the controllers showed good set-points tracking ability over the operating range. The multiple model-based MPC showed smooth transitions from one operating regime to another operating regime. / Process Control

<p>Pesticides are designed to control or eliminate pests such as insects, rodents, weeds,<br /> bacteria, and fungi. They are used at a global scale for agricultural produce. Although<br /> pesticides play a significant role in increasing food production and eliminating diseases,<br /> exposure to pesticides may be harmful to non-target organisms. As a result concern over<br /> safety and resistance to pesticides has increased and there is pressure to reduce use and<br /> search for more environmentally and toxicologically safe and efficacious pesticides. Most<br /> pesticides currently in use are synthetic / therefore an alternative to synthetic pesticides is<br /> the use of naturally occurring products/ botanicals with pesticidal properties.</p> <p>Two plants indigenous to South African with pesticidal properties were chosen for this<br /> study. Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis (D. rhinocerotis) and Galenia africana (G. africana)<br /> have potential antifungal properties thus, may have potential use on agricultural produce<br /> as fungicides. Galenia africana and D. rhinocerotis extracts inhibit growth of B. cinerea<br /> (a fungal pathogen) at concentrations greater than 31.25 mg/ml and 125mg/ml<br /> respectively. A major consideration in approving pesticides for use is whether they pose<br /> an unreasonable risk to humans and to the environment. Toxicity studies are required to<br /> determine the safety of the plant extracts.</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential toxicity of ethanol extracts of D.<br /> rhinocerotis and G. africana, which is important when designing practices to reduce or<br /> eliminate excess exposure to them. Natural plant products with pesticidal properties could<br /> provide an alternative to synthetic pesticides and may thus effectively reduce resistance<br /> levels.<br /> <br /> <br /> &nbsp / </p>

The contents of this thesis can be divided into two main parts. The first one is the development of an identification methodology for the modelling of complex industrial processes. The second one is the application of this methodology to the curl and twist problem. The main purpose behind the proposed methodology is to provide a schematic planning, together with some suggested tools, when confronted with the challenge of building a complex model of an industrial process. Particular attention has been placed to outlier detection and data analysis when building a model from old, or historical, process data. Another aspect carefully handled in the proposed methodology is the identifiability analysis. In fact, it is rather common in process modelling that the model structure turns out to be weakly identifiable. Consequently, the problem of variable selection is treated at length in this thesis, and a new algorithm for variable selection based on regularization has been proposed and compared with some of the classical methods, yielding promising results. The second part of the thesis is about the development of a curl predictor. Curl is the tendency of paper of assuming a curved shape and is observed mainly during humidity changes. Curl in paper and in paperboard is a long-standing problem because it may seriously affect the processing of the paper. Unfortunately, curl cannot be measured online, but only in the laboratory after that an entire tambour has been produced. The main goal of this project is then to develop a model for curl and twist, and eventually to implement it as an on-line predictor to be used by the operators and process engineers as a tool for decision/control. The approach we used to tackle this problem is based on grey-box modelling. The reasons for such an approach is that the physical process is very complex and nonlinear. The influence of some inputs is not entirely understood, and besides it depends on a number of unknown parameters and unmodelled/unmesurable disturbances. Simulations on real data show a good agreement with the measurement, particularly for MD and CD curl, and hence we believe that the model has an usable accuracy for being implemented as an on-line predictor. / QC 20100928

The great amount of METH abuse all over the world causes enormous social and criminal justice problems. In the human brain the abuse of METH causes implications on both structures and functions given rise to acute as well as long term symptoms. In this essay the effects of METH abuse is described in the manner of the drug mechanism such as the impact on neurotransmitters, structural deficits with decreased and increased volumes and the implication on attention, memory, decision  making and emotions. Results from studies showing brain structural and cognitive impairments in METH abusers and in prenatal METH exposed children.

The current paper is a study of the character Christian Grey in the EL James trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey. The main aim is to find out how masculinity, sexuality and gender are constructed in this erotic fantasy. More over terms as femininity, unmanliness and gender have relevance to the study. Several studies have been done on romance novels and Harlequin in particular from a gender perspective, but few of them from a masculine point of view. Hence, no earlier study has been done on Fifty Shades of Grey with masculinity studies as the main tool of masculinity, or with theories of romance. The novels have been read and analysed with studies of the romance literature and masculinity as the main tool of analysis. The result shows that the character Christian Grey is ambivalent towards femininity and has a fear of losing control. And from this point of view the novels problematize patriarchy, male control and superiority.

Examensarbetet har utförts i samarbete med företaget LVI (Low Vision International) som tillverkar elektroniska hjälpmedel för synskadade. LVI utvärderar vid jämna mellanrum nya LCD-bildskärmar för deras produkter. LVI behöver metoder samt utrustning för att mäta bildskärmars responstid och latens. Både responstiden och latensen ger fördröjningar vilket t.ex. leder till att bilden blir oskarp, rörliga föremål får en svans efter sig eller att lju- det kommer före bilden. I detta arbete utförs en grundlig förstudie som behandlar bild- skärmars responstid och latens samt ger ett underlag för att konstruera eller köpa mätut- rustning för responstidsmätningar. I förstudien framkommer den standardiserade mätmeto- den ”grey-to-grey” som LVI kan använda för att mäta responstiden. En mätkrets konstrue- ras för att mäta responstiden samt beställs en dedikerad enhet för latensmätning. För att ut- värdera mätmetoderna utförs ett antal tester med mätkretsen för responstid och den dedike- rade enheten för mätning av latens. Mätningarna visar senare att mätmetoden ”grey-to- grey” är den som LVI ska använda men metoden behöver vidareutvecklas. Den dedikerade enheten för latensmätningar visar sig mäta en del av responstiden och bör därför endast an- vändas som komplement till responstidsmätningen vid jämförelser mellan olika bildskär- mar. Arbetet levererar en förstudie i LCD-bildskärmars responstid och latens, en vidareut- vecklad version av ”grey-to-grey”-metoden, mätutrustning för responstidsmätning samt den dedikerade mätenheten för latens till företaget LVI. / The thesis was performed in collaboration with the company LVI (Low Vision Interna- tional) that manufactures electronic devices for the visually impaired. LVI evaluates new LCD displays for their products at regular intervals. LVI need methods and equipment for measuring response time and input lag. Both response time and input lag cause delays, which results in such things as image blur, ghosting after moving objects or a delay between sound and image. The preliminary study reveals the standardized method “grey- to-grey” that LVI can use to measure response time. A measurement circuit was constructed to measure response time and a dedicated unit for input lag measurement was ordered. To evaluate the measurement methods a number of tests were conducted with the response time circuit and the dedicated input lag unit. The measurements showed that the method LVI shall use is the "grey-to-grey” method but it needs further development. It turned out that the dedicated unit for input lag measured a portion of the response time and should therefore only be used as a complement to the response time measurement when comparing displays. The thesis delivers a preliminary study in LCD displays response times and input lag, a further developed version of the “grey-to-grey” method, measurement equipment for response time and a dedicated unit for input lag measurements to the company LVI.

Texture analysis has been used extensively in the computer-assisted interpretation of SAR sea ice imagery. Provision of maps which distinguish relevant ice types is significant for monitoring global warming and ship navigation. Due to the abundance of SAR imagery available, there exists a need to develop an automated approach for SAR sea ice interpretation. Grey level co-occurrence probability (<i>GLCP</i>) texture features are very popular for SAR sea ice classification. Although these features are used extensively in the literature, they have a tendency to erode and misclassify texture boundaries. Proposed is an advancement to the <i>GLCP</i> method which will preserve texture boundaries during image segmentation. This method exploits the relationship a pixel has with its closest neighbors and weights the texture measurement accordingly. These texture features are referred to as <i>WGLCP</i> (weighted <i>GLCP</i>) texture features. In this research, the <i>WGLCP</i> and <i>GLCP</i> feature sets are compared in terms of boundary preservation, unsupervised segmentation ability, robustness to increasing boundary density and computation time. The <i>WGLCP</i> method outperforms the <i>GLCP</i> method in all aspects except for computation time, where it suffers. From the comparative analysis, an inconsistency with the <i>GLCP</i> correlation statistic was observed, which motivated an investigative study into using this statistic for image segmentation. As the overall goal of the thesis is to improve SAR sea ice segmentation accuracy, the concepts developed from the study are applied to the image segmentation problem. The results indicate that for images with high contrast boundaries, the <i>GLCP</i> correlation statistical feature decreases segmentation accuracy. When comparing <i>WGLCP</i> and <i>GLCP</i> features for segmentation, the <i>WGLCP</i> features provide higher segmentation accuracy.

The purpose of this thesis work was to develop an automatic fault detection system for surveillance of bearing temperature in hydropower turbines. The parameters used except the bearing temperature were cooling water temperature and cooling water flow. A simple static model based on data sampled every minute was developed to estimate the bearing temperature. Then a detector for detection of change in bearing temperature based on the CUSUM-algorithm was designed. Since the amount of data was very small the developed model was too uncertain to be used in a working system. The designed fault detection system showed to work well for the available data. It is, however, recommended that the performance of the system should be evaluated using more data. Another model based on data sampled once every minute for at least a year has to be developed before the system can be fully evaluated. The results shown were: • The fault detection system can discover fast and slow changes in bearing temperature. • No false alarms were given for measuring faults and sensor faults of the types used in this thesis. If a measuring fault occurs for too long there will be an alarm. The fault detection algorithm was also implemented in Delphi to be used in a working system over the Internet where for example trends and alarms will be presented. / Syftet med examensarbetet var att utveckla ett automatiskt feldetekteringssystem för övervakning av bärlagertemperaturen i vattenkraftturbiner. De ingående parametrarna förutom bärlagertemperaturen var kylvattentemperaturen och kylvattenflödet. En enkel statisk modell baserad på data samplat en gång per minut togs fram för att estimera bärlagertemperaturen. Därefter utvecklades en detektor för att upptäcka avvikelser i bärlagertemperaturen baserad på CUSUM-algoritmen. På grund av en för liten mängd data var den framtagna modellen alltför osäker för att kunna implementeras i ett fungerande system. Det framtagna feldetekteringssystemet visade sig fungera bra för de data som fanns tillgängliga. Det är däremot rekommenderat att utvärdera systemets prestanda med längre dataserier. En ytterligare modell baserad på minutdata över ett år måste tas fram innan systemet kan fungera på riktigt. De resultat som erhölls var: • Feldetekteringssystemet klarar av att upptäcka abrupta och långsamma avvikelser av bärlagertemperaturen. • Inga falsklarm ges då det är enstaka mätfel eller givarfel av sådan typ som tagits upp i arbetet. Pågår ett mätfel alltför länge ges dock ett larm. Feldetekteringsalgoritmen implementerades även i Delphi för att kunna användas i ett fungerande system över Internet där t.ex. trendkurvor och larmsignaler skall kunna presenteras.

I Australien är vattenresurserna begränsade. För lantbrukare är tillgängligheten på vatten mycket viktig. På grund av det torra klimatet kan inte de Australiensiska bönderna förlita sig på nederbörden. Bevattningssystemen är därför en viktig del i jordbrukningsindustrin. Bevattningsområdet i Coleambally ligger i södra New South Wales nära gränsen till staten Victoria. Bevattningsnätet i Coleambally förser ofta bevattningskanalerna med för mycket vatten för att vara säker på att lantbrukarna får den mängd vatten de behöver. På grund av denna tillförsel av överskottvatten går stor mängd av vatten förlorad. Design av ett bättre reglersystem skulle kunna minska den stora förlusten av vatten. En matematisk modell beskrivande dynamiken av bevattningssystemet är ett bra redskap vid en design av ett bättre reglersystem. Syftet med det här projektet var att genom systemidentifiering bygga en matematisk modell av bevattningssystemet. Modellen syftade till att beskriva vattennivån i en sträcka av bevattningskanalerna, sträckan i kanalen skulle ha två olika typer av luckor, en typ där vattnet strömmar över luckan och en annan typ där vattnet strömmar under luckan. En modell byggdes genom att parametrar från en vald modellstruktur estimerades från experimentella data. Data samlades under ett experiment som utfördes på en bevattningskanal i Coleambally. Resultatet från systemidentifieringen blev en första ordningens output error grey box modell. Modellen visar goda resultat vid validering och bör kunna användas vid design av ett bättre reglersystem. Modellen visar så god överensstämmelse med valideringsdata att den även kan användas för olika fall av simulering. / Water resources in Australia are limited. For a farmer the access to water is crucial and due to the dry climate the farmers in Australia can not rely on precipitation. Irrigation is therefore a very important part of the farming industry. The Coleambally Irrigation Area is situated in the southern parts of New South Wales close to the border of Victoria. The Irrigation Network often supplies the irrigation channels with too much water to be sure that the demand of water is satisfied. Due to this over supply a great amount of water gets wasted. Design of a bettercontrol system would be able to reduce the water wastage. A mathematical model describing the dynamics of the irrigation system can be used as a tool for the control system design. The aim of this project was to build a mathematical model with the system identification approach. The model should be able to describe the downstream water level of a single pool of an irrigation channel which has both undershot and overshot gates. A model was built by estimating unknown parameters of a chosen model structure from a set of experimental data. The data was collected from an experiment performed on the real irrigation system in Coleambally. The result of the system identification was a first order output error grey box model. The model performs well on validation data and may therefore be used for design of a more efficient control system. The model gave such good results that it additionally may be used for various simulation purposes.