Minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) are fundamentally constrained by image quality,access to the operative field, and the visualization environment on which thesurgeon relies for real-time information. Although invasive access benefits the patient,it also leads to more challenging procedures, which require better skills andtraining. Endoscopic surgeries rely heavily on 2D interfaces, introducing additionalchallenges due to the loss of depth perception, the lack of 3-Dimensional imaging,and the reduction of degrees of freedom.By using state-of-the-art technology within a distributed computational architecture,it is possible to incorporate multiple sensors, hybrid display devices, and3D visualization algorithms within a exible surgical environment. Such environmentscan assist the surgeon with valuable information that goes far beyond what iscurrently available. In this thesis, we will discuss how 3D visualization and reconstruction,stereo displays, high-resolution display devices, and tracking techniques arekey elements in the next-generation of surgical environments.

The effect of short, strong radiofrequency pulses on the nuclear spin system is examined. Providing the durations of the pulses are short with respect to coupling constants within the spin system, they may be described by simple rotation operators which are exponential functions of the angular momentum operators. Operator algebra can be used to define the interaction of such pulses with the spin system, and the mutual interaction of a sequence of pulses. The case of a simple coupled spin system is examined in detail and it is found that a vector model can be used to describe the motion of the expectation values of the observables. This model also allows treatment of such 'non-classical 1 effects as coherence transfer and multiple-quantum coherence. The proposal is also made that certain types of pulse imperfection may be compensated by using specially constructed sequences of small numbers of pulses, which are termed 'composite pulses'. Their compensatory action is illustrated by computer simulation, and by experimental results. In the case of certain symmetrical composite pulses, operator algebra can be used to understand their overall effect in the presence of pulse imperfections, suggesting their use in such critical applications as multiple spin echo trains. Another class of symmetrical composite pulses provides rotations by arbitrary angles around the z-axis of the rotating reference frame, and is expected to be of use in multiple-quantum spectroscopy.

Novel sequential and parallel computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes based on method of lines (MOL) approach were developed for the numerical simulation of multi-component reacting flows using detailed transport and thermodynamic models. Both codes were applied to the prediction of a confined axisymmetric laminar co-flowing methane-air diffusion flame for which experimental data were available in the literature. Flame-sheet model for infinite-rate chemistry and one-, two-, and five- and ten-step reduced finite-rate reaction mechanisms were employed for methane-air combustion sub-model. A second-order high-resolution total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme based on Lagrange interpolation polynomial was proposed in order to alleviate spurious oscillations encountered in time evolution of flame propagation. Steady-state velocity, temperature and species profiles obtained by using infinite- and finite-rate chemistry models were validated against experimental data and other numerical solutions. They were found to be in reasonably good agreement with measurements and numerical results. The proposed difference scheme produced accurate results without spurious oscillations and numerical diffusion encountered in the classical schemes and hence was found to be a successful scheme applicable to strongly convective flow problems with non-uniform grid resolution. The code was also found to be an efficient tool for the prediction and understanding of transient combustion systems. This study constitutes the initial steps in the development of an efficient numerical scheme for direct numerical simulation (DNS) of unsteady, turbulent, multi-dimensional combustion with complex chemistry.

Research in lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology involving microfluidics is a growing field aiming at the development of miniaturized biomedical systems with rich functionality. In order to design effective LOC microfluidic systems, the flow fields and the fluids inside LOC devices need to be carefully characterized. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers a powerful non-intrusive technology for this application. In this thesis, the design and implementation of a prototype for a desktop high-resolution MRI instrument, consisting of a magnet, gradient coils, gradient amplifiers, and radio frequency (RF) electronics, is presented. To reduce the size and cost of this MRI instrument, a permanent magnetic configuration with a magnetic flux density of 0.6 T is designed with off-the-shelf NdFeB permanent magnets. The coils of the triaxial gradient module are developed using a novel lithography technique. This gradient module is capable of generating gradient fields as high as 2.83 T/m with custom made current amplifiers. The radio frequency (RF) probe is integrated with the gradient module and is connected to the RF electronics which are made using off-the-shelf components. Pulse sequences and signal processing for acquiring static images and velocity profiles are described. The performance of this instrument in terms of static and dynamic image resolution are presented. As a preliminary test, the velocity profile of water flowing inside a small tube was measured with a nominal resolution of 40 μm. The instrument is designed for a static resolution of better than 30 μm and a velocity resolution better than 50 μm/s. Improvements to the current instrument in addition to theoretical limitations are also detailed.

Doctor of Philosophy / Precision Agriculture (PA) strives towards holistic production and environmental management. A fundamental research challenge is the continuous expansion of ideas about how PA can contribute to sustainable agriculture. Some associated pragmatic research challenges include quantification of spatio-temporal variation of crop yield; crop growth simulation modelling within a PA context and; evaluating long-term financial and environmental outcomes from site-specific crop management (SSCM). In Chapter 1 literature about managing whole farms with a mind towards sustainability was reviewed. Alternative agricultural systems and concepts including systems thinking, agro-ecology, mosaic farming and PA were investigated. With respect to environmental outcomes it was found that PA research is relatively immature. There is scope to thoroughly evaluate PA from a long-term, whole-farm environmental and financial perspective. Comparatively, the emphasis of PA research on managing spatial variability offers promising and innovative ways forward, particularly in terms of designing new farming systems. It was found that using crop growth simulation modelling in a PA context is potentially very useful. Modelling high-resolution spatial and temporal variability with current simulation models poses a number of immediate research issues. This research focused on three whole farms located in Australia that grow predominantly grains without irrigation. These study sites represent three important grain growing regions within Australia. These are northern NSW, north-east Victoria and South Australia. Note-worthy environmental and climatic differences between these regions such as rainfall timing, soil type and topographic features were outlined in Chapter 2. When considering adoption of SSCM, it is essential to understand the impact of temporal variation on the potential value of managing spatial variation. Quantifying spatiotemporal variation of crop yield serves this purpose; however, this is a conceptually and practically challenging undertaking. A small number of previous studies have found that the magnitude of temporal variation far exceeds that of spatial variation. Chapter 3 of this thesis dealt with existing and new approaches quantifying the relationship between spatial and temporal variability in crop yield. It was found that using pseudo cross variography to obtain spatial and temporal variation ‘equivalents’ is a promising approach to quantitatively comparing spatial and temporal variation. The results from this research indicate that more data in the temporal dimension is required to enable thorough analysis using this approach. This is particularly relevant when questioning the suitability of SSCM. Crop growth simulation modelling offers PA a number of benefits such as the ability to simulate a considerable volume of data in the temporal dimension. A dominant challenge recognised within the PA/modelling literature is the mismatch between the spatial resolution of point-based model output (and therefore input) and the spatial resolution of information demanded by PA. This culminates into questions about the conceptual model underpinning the simulation model and the practicality of using point-based models to simulate spatial variability. iii The ability of point-based models to simulate appropriate spatial and temporal variability of crop yield and the importance of soil available water capacity (AWC) for these simulations were investigated in Chapter 4. The results indicated that simulated spatial variation is low compared to some previously reported spatial variability of real yield data for some climate years. It was found that the structure of spatial yield variation was directly related to the structure of the AWC and interactions between AWC and climate. It is apparent that varying AWC spatially is a reasonable starting point for modelling spatial variation of crop yield. A trade-off between capturing adequate spatio-temporal variation of crop yield and the inclusion of realistically obtainable model inputs is identified. A number of practical solutions to model parameterisation for PA purposes are identified in the literature. A popular approach is to minimise the number of simulations required. Another approach that enables modelling at every desired point across a study area involves taking advantage of high-resolution yield information from a number of years to estimate site-specific soil properties with the inverse use of a crop growth simulation model. Inverse meta-modelling was undertaken in Chapter 5 to estimate AWC on 10- metre grids across each of the study farms. This proved to be an efficient approach to obtaining high-resolution AWC information at the spatial extent of whole farms. The AWC estimates proved useful for yield prediction using simple linear regression as opposed to application within a complex crop growth simulation model. The ability of point-based models to simulate spatial variation was re-visited in Chapter 6 with respect to the exclusion of lateral water movement. The addition of a topographic component into the simple point-based yield prediction models substantially improved yield predictions. The value of these additions was interpreted using coefficients of determination and comparing variograms for each of the yield prediction components. A result consistent with the preceding chapter is the importance of further validating the yield prediction models with further yield data when it becomes available. Finally, some whole-farm management scenarios using SSCM were synthesised in Chapter 7. A framework that enables evaluation of the long-term (50 years) farm outcomes soil carbon sequestration, nitrogen leaching and crop yield was established. The suitability of SSCM across whole-farms over the long term was investigated and it was found that the suitability of SSCM is confined to certain fields. This analysis also enabled identification of parts of the farms that are the least financially and environmentally viable. SSCM in conjunction with other PA management strategies is identified as a promising approach to long-term and whole-farm integrated management.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-225).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-04-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:19:01Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 estevam_ea_me_prud.pdf: 2562197 bytes, checksum: cf459f1290bd6066156656a02c32f29c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Com o avanço da tecnologia de sensoriamento remoto e conseqüente maior disponibilidade de sistemas sensores, houve grande aumento nas opções de uso de produtos orbitais, principalmente com significativa melhoria nas resoluções. Com isto, a utilização desses produtos em áreas urbanas tem crescido demasiadamente à medida que suas potencialidades têm sido demonstradas e confirmadas em diferentes aplicações. Porém, um pré-requisito para extrair informações desses produtos é o conhecimento do comportamento espectral dos objetos da superfície a serem analisados e os fatores que interferem neste comportamento. Isso tornou-se possível devido aos sensores a bordo dos novos satélites estarem cada vez mais adequados a estudos urbanos, em função do aumento das resoluções espacial, espectral e radiométrica. A resolução espacial tende a se igualar a das fotos aéreas e com menor custo de produção. A quantidade de detalhes apresentados pela resolução de 1 metro ou sub-metro, possibilitará análise e mapeamento da terra a um nível ainda não realizado com imagens orbitais. Com a utilização de técnicas de sensoriamento remoto, foi proposto um método que teve por objetivo, analisar a aplicabilidade da classificação orientada a objetos para classificação de cobertura da áreas de favela em produtos de alta resolução... / With the technology progress of the remote sensoring and consequent greater sensor systems availability, there was a large increase in the significant improvement in the resolutions. In this way, the use of these products in urban areas has been increasing so much as while their potentialities has been demonstrated and confirmed to in the different applications. However, one prerequirement to remove information from these products is the knowledge of the spectral behavior from the objects from the surface to be analysed and the agents which interfere in this behavior. This became possible because of the sensors aboard the new satellites that are each more appropriate to the urban studies, functioning as the spatial, spectral and radiometry increase. The spatial resolution extends to equate to the aerial pictures and with less production cost. The detail quantities presented by 1 meter or submeter resolution will become possible the analysis and the mapping of the earth to a level never reached in orbital images. With the remote sensoring techniques use, it was proposed one method that had the propose of analyzing the applicability of the guided classification to the objects for the classification of slum areas in light resolution products... (Complete abstract, click electronic address below)

Dans cette thèse, nous avons considéré les spectres de la molécule CH2=CD2. Dans la partie expérimentale, nous avons enregistré des spectres infrarouges à haute résolution (~ 0,0025 cm-1) et fait une attribution complète des transitions enregistrées. Nous avons pu assigner pour la première fois un grand nombre de transitions des combinaisons peu intenses υ4+υ10, υ4+υ7 et de l'harmonique 2υ10; de bandes interdites par symétrie υ4, υ7+υ10, υ8+υ10; et des bandes «chaudes» υ7+υ10–υ10 et υ8+υ10–υ10. Pour la première fois, plus de 7000 transitions inconnues des bandes fondamentales υ2, υ3, υ6, υ7, υ8, υ10, υ12 et de l'harmonique 2υ7 ont été assignées. Sur la base de la théorie des opérateurs de perturbation et des propriétés de symétrie de la molécule étudiée, nous avons construit un hamiltonien effectif puis ajusté les énergies vibrationnelles expérimentales de quatorze états vibrationnels. De cette étude, il a résulté un écart-type pour l'ajustement d'environ (1,7–2,5)×10−4 cm−1 pour diverses régions spectrales. Nous avons également mesuré les valeurs expérimentales des intensités et des demi-largeurs et avons calculé les paramètres du moment dipolaire effectif et des coefficients d'auto-élargissement de la molécule CH2=CD2. / In this thesis we have considered spectra of the CH2=CD2 molecule. In the experimental part we recorded high-resolution (~ 0.0025 cm-1) infrared spectra and made full assignment of the recorded transitions. We were able to assign for the first time a lot of transitions to the weak combinations υ4+υ10, υ4+υ7 and 2υ10 overtone; forbidden due to the symmetry υ4, υ7+υ10, υ8+υ10; «hot» υ7+υ10–υ10 and υ8+υ10–υ10 bands. More than 7000 previously unknown transitions were assigned to the fundamental bands υ2, υ3, υ6, υ7, υ8, υ10, υ12 and 2υ7 overtone. On the base of operator perturbation theory and the symmetry properties of the studied molecule, we constructed an effective Hamiltonian and then fitted experimental ro-vibrational energies of fourteen vibrational states. As a result, rms-deviation of the fit was about (1.7–2.5)×10−4 cm−1 for various spectral regions. We measured also experimental values of intensities and halfwidths and calculated parameters of effective dipole moment and self-broadening coefficients of the СH2=СD2 molecule.

O Caribe Colombiano é o foco da exploração na Colômbia, e a Bacia da Guajira na sua parte offshore tem sido relativamente pouco explorada. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo fazer um estudo sísmico de alta resolução aplicável á áreas sem exploração em blocos novos ou para ter diferentes perspectivas em blocos já explorados, neste caso para o intervalo de tempo compreendido entre o limite do Mioceno médio-inferior e o Oligoceno superior, em uma área da Guajira Alta. A partir da integração de duas seções sísmicas 2D, associadas a seis poços com litologias definidas por amostras de calha, foi realizada: (1) uma análise sismoestratigráfica de alta resolução incluindo a interpretação das terminações dos refletores, definição das unidades sismoestratigráficas e superfícies chave, (2) identificação das sismofácies, (3) a elaboração de uma carta cronoestratigráfica. Como resultado, foram individualizadas cinco unidades sísmicas, seis sismofácies e a carta cronoestratigráfica Todas as unidades sísmicas identificadas correspondem com depósitos de gravidade tipo fluxo de detritos e turbiditos, e depósitos hemipelágicos. As sismofácies caracterizadas como turbiditos (refletores paralelos, subparalelos, hummocky), são geralmente calcáreas, as sismofácies de fluxo de detritos (refletores caóticos), têm mistura de litologias tipo folhelhos, siltitos, lamitos, arenitos e carbonatos, e as sismofácies definidas como depósitos hemipelágicos (refletores paralelos, subparalelos), correspondem em sua maioria com depósitos finos. Na carta cronoestratigráfica indica uma depositacão contínua em esse intervalo de tempo. / Colombia Caribbean province is an important hydrocarbon exploration target in Colombia, a Guajira Offshore Basin as part of this province and is a frontier basin today. Main objective of this study is to develop a high resolution seismic stratigraphic study to be applied to unexplored areas on new blocks and/or to have another interpretation in low explored areas, in this case, on the specific time interval upper Oligocene-middle-lower Miocene, selecting a study area in Upper Guajira offshore. Data integration of two seismic sections and lithologic logs from six wells obtained from cuttings made possible to interpret: 1) High resolution seismic stratigraphic analysis including seismic stratigraphic units and key surfaces definition, seismic reflectors pinch outs, 2) seismic facies definition and 3) cronostratigraphic chart. From this analysis were stablished five seismic units, six seismic facies and a chronostratigraphic events chart. All interpreted seismic units correspond to gravity flow deposits debris and turbiditic type and hemipelagic deposits. Turbidite type seismic facies (parallel, subparallel and hummocky reflectors), are usually calcareous in composition, as well as detrital fluxes (chaotical reflectors), are generally a mixture of sandstones, limestones, siltstones, mudstones and shales, and hemipelagic seismic facies (parallel to subparallel reflectors) correspond to thin bedded deposits usually silty and muddy. Chronostratigraphic chart events indicates continuous deposition in this time interval.