Estágio realizado na SCA - Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget orintado por Hans Pettersson / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Química. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., leaf grade values can significantly increase with remnants of leaf and bract materials, and can result in increased ginning costs and discounts to the producer. Cotton classed through the USDA-AMS Classing Office in Corpus Christi, Texas has reported increases in leaf grade values beginning in 2000 (USDA, 2012). The impacts of the interaction of agronomic characteristics of cotton cultivars with those of various harvest aid regimes were studied over three growing seasons, and data were used to narrow possible contributors to the observed increased leaf grade values. Multiple trials were conducted throughout the Coastal Bend and Blackland Prairie of Texas, in addition to Tifton, Georgia. Cotton was harvested, lint samples were ginned in a microgin, and lint quality was quantified with HVI. Harvest aid regimes selected provided a broad range of defoliation and desiccation, from a multiple herbicidal and hormonal modes-of-action. Defoliation levels ranged from 0 to 96% and desiccation levels ranged from 0 to 90%. Harvest aid treatments had no impact (P≤0.05) on leaf grade values for either of the years of the trials. Multiple trials were conducted in five counties in Texas, including the Lower and Upper Coastal Bend and the Blackland Prairie, and were defoliated with a uniform harvest aid treatment to identify leaf and bract morphological differences, and to determine their role in leaf grade. Multi-acre module trials were conducted with a smooth leaf cultivar and a hairy leaf cultivar to obtain leaf grade values following commercial ginning. Leaf and bract pubescence, and leaf and bract area were collected to analyze the resulting impact on cotton leaf grade values. Visual quantification of leaf and bract trichome density was quantified on 10 youngest fully-expanded leaves and 10 mid-canopy full sized bolls, respectively, when cotton was at physiological cut-out. Trichome density quantification indicated substantial variation in cultivars and discrepancies from company based rating systems. Leaf grades values generally increased with increasing trichomes densities, although not always statistically significant. In the split plot cultivar and harvest aid trial, harvest aid efficacy was similar for each of the cultivars, but cultivar trichome density was positively influence the cotton leaf grade value.

Peritoneale Verwachsungen sind die häufigste Komplikation nach operativen Eingriffen. Sie haben abdominelle Beschwerden, chronische Ileuszustände und den akuten Ileus zur Folge. Diese peritonealen Reaktionen sind bei Neugeborenen und Säuglingen besonders ausgeprägt. Seit es operative abdominelle Eingriffe gibt, stellt das Vermeiden von peritonealen Adhäsionen ein zentrales Problem dar. Eine Vielzahl von Substanzen, lokal oder systemisch angewendet, wurde getestet, um Adhäsionen zu vermeiden. Bis heute hat sich kein gesicherter Standard für die Sekundärprophylaxe von Adhäsionen etabliert. Eine nicht ausreichende Wirksamkeit oder klinisch nicht akzeptable Nebenwirkungen sind dafür die Ursache. Das primäre Vermeiden von Verwachsungen steht nach wie vor im Mittelpunkt chirurgischer Bemühungen. Das organschonende Operieren und das Verbannen von Talkum an den Handschuhen der Chirurgen sind weltweit anerkannte Maßnahmen der Primärprophylaxe von Adhäsionen. Dass man auch den Abrieb von Bauchtüchern, die üblicherweise aus Baumwolle gefertigt sind, für die Entstehung von Adhäsionen verantwortlich machen muss, ist seit langem bekannt, wurde aber bisher in der operativen Praxis weitestgehend ignoriert. Die vorliegende tierexperimentelle Arbeit am Rattenmodell zeigt, dass die Verwendung alternativer Werkstoffe (Polyestergewebe) anstelle der üblichen Baumwolltücher zu einer deutlichen Verminderung der Adhäsionszahl und -stärke führt. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird gezeigt, dass neben diesen primärprophylaktischen Maßnahmen auch sekundär Adhäsionen reduziert werden können. Wir untersuchten hierzu die Wirkung von PF 5080, einem Perfluorcarbon, auf das Peritoneum. Eine deutliche Reduktion der postoperativen Verwachsungen am Rattenmodell ließ sich nachweisen. Die lokale und systemische Wirkungsweise dieser Substanz ist noch weitgehend unbekannt und bedarf weiterer Forschung. / Peritoneal adhesions are the most common complication after surgical procedures. They often cause abdominal pain and bowel obstruction. Those peritoneal reactions are very intense in newborn and infants. Since the first days of open abdominal surgery the avoidance of adhesions has been a key problem. A countless array of drugs for local or systemic use to reduce adhesions has been tested. Until now no proven standard of secondary prophylaxis against adhesions has been established. The reasons are inefficiency or unacceptable side effects. The primary avoidance of adhesions is still the main focus for surgeons. Surgical techniques which keeps the organ carefully and the banishment of talcum from surgical gloves are widely acknowledged standards in the primary prophylaxis of adhesions. The fact that cotton particles from surgical swabs also contribute to postoperative adhesions has been known for along time but until now ignored in surgical practice. This study shows that the use of alternative material like polyester instead of cotton during operation does strongly reduce the formation of adhesions in rat. A further finding of this study is that the instillation of PF 5080, a Perfluorocarbon, in the late phase of the operation in the abdominal cavity does also reduce postoperative adhesions in rat. The local and systemic mode of function remains unknown and will be the subject to further research.

<p>Today’s electronics in aviation (avionics) are more complex than ever before. With higher requirements on safety and reliability and with new SoC (System on Chip) technology, the validation and verification of designs meet new challenges. In commercial and military aircraft there are many safety-critical systems that need to be reliable. The consequences of a failure of a safety-critical system onboard a civil or military aircraft are immeasurably more serious than a glitch or a bit-flip in a consumer appliance or Internet service delivery. If possible hazards are found early in the design process, a lot of work can be saved later on. Certain structures in the code are prone to produce glitchy logic and timing problems and should be avoided. This thesis will strengthen Saab Avitronics knowledge of adaptable rule checking tools for HDL, with a market analysis of the tools available. Moreover will it evaluate two of the most suitable tools and finally it will describe some of the design issues that exist when coding safety-critical systems. Finally it is concluded that the introduction of static rule checking tools will help the validator to find dangerous constructs in the code. However, it will not be possible to fully automate rule checking for safety-critical systems, because of the high requirements on reliability.</p>

<p>The complex work of designing new ASICs today and the increasing costs of time to market (TTM) delays are putting high responsibility on the research and development teams to make fault free designs. The main purpose of implementing a static rule checking tool in the design flow today is to find errors and bugs in the hardware definition language (HDL) code as fast and soon as possible. The sooner you find a bug in the design, the shorter the turnaround time becomes, and thereby both time and money will be saved.</p><p>There are a couple of tools in the market that performs static HDL analysis and they vary in both price and functionality. In this project mainly Atrenta Spyglass was evaluated but similar tools were also evaluated for comparison purpose.</p><p>The purpose of this master thesis was to evaluate the need of implementing a rule checking tool in the design flow at the Digital ASIC department PDU Base Station development in Kista, who also was the commissioner for this project. Based on the findings in this project it is recommended that a static rule checking tool is introduced in the design flow at the ASIC department. However, in order to determine which of the different tools the following pointers should be regarded:</p><p>• If the tool is only going to be used as for lint checks (elementary structure and code checks) on RTL, then the implementation of Mentors Design Checker is advised.</p><p>• If the tool is going to be used for more sophisticated structural checks, clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, basic constraints checks, basic Clock Domain Crossings (CDC) checks, then Synopsys LEDA is advised.</p><p>• If the tool is going to be used as for advanced structural checks, extensive clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, constraints checks, functional Design For Test (DFT) checks (as testmode signal propagation) and functional CDC checks on RTL as well as on netlist level, then Atrenta Spyglass is advised.</p><p>The areas regarding checks that could be of interest for Ericsson is believed to be regular lint checks for RTL (naming, code and basic structure), clock/reset tree propagation (netlist and RTL), constraints and functional DFT checks (netlist and RTL).</p>

Crop managers need to determine the most profitable time to defoliate cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in a high rainfall environment such as the coastal region of Texas. In cotton production, delaying defoliation exposes open bolls to a higher probability of rainfall, and thus, reduces lint yield and fiber quality. Premature defoliation, however, has detrimental affects on lint yield and fiber quality. A more recent method to determine defoliation is based on heat-unit (HU or DD15) accumulation after physiological cutout or five nodes above white flower (NAWF=5). Results have been inconsistent across a wide range of field environments when utilizing HU accumulation past cutout; therefore, adoption of this method has been limited. Many regions of the Cotton Belt have maximum day time temperatures during the growing season that are above optimum for maximum growth. Field studies were conducted for three consecutive growing seasons in the Brazos River Valley and Upper Gulf Coast regions of Texas. The purpose of this research was to identify an upper temperature threshold (UTT) for calculating degree days for defoliation timing. The experimental design consisted of a split-plot design with four replications. The main plots consisted of three upper temperature thresholds (32°C, 35°C, and no upper limit) and the subplots were five HU timings (361, 417, 472, 528, and 583) accumulated from date of cutout. Utilizing an UTT to calculate daily HU failed to explain differences in the optimum time to defoliate based on accumulated HU from cutout for the upper thresholds investigated. Accumulated HU had a significant impact, however, on defoliation timing. Comparison of the two locations showed that maximum lint yield was obtained at 472 HU and 52% open boll at Wharton County versus a maximum of 528 HU and 62% open boll for the Burleson County location. Employing the NACB=4 method to time defoliation at both locations would have resulted in premature application of harvest aids and reduced lint yields. No differences were observed in adjusted gross income values at Wharton County among the 417, 472, 528, and 583 HU treatments. For Burleson County, adjusted gross income peaked in value at 528 HU.

Among the available methods of creating selectable variation, induced mutagenesis has been historically under-utilized in cotton improvement. Dick Auld showed that chemical mutagenesis could be used to enhance fiber length of a medium staple cotton cultivar without sacrificing yield. The goal of this project was to determine if mutagenesis could be used to improve the fiber quality of a germplasm line already considered to be at the upper-limits of fiber length. Seed of TAM 94 L-25 were treated with EMS in 2001 and the M2 generation was produced at Lubbock, Texas in 2002. More than 1200 M3 plants were grown at College Station, Texas in 2004, harvested individually, and HVI fiber properties determined. The top and bottom 1 percent for UHML, strength, and elongation were selected and the seeds of these individuals planted as an M4 progeny row nursery in 2005. Approximately ten individual plants per progeny row were harvested for re-evaluation of fiber parameters. From the approximately 1600 individual TAM 94L-25 M4 plants harvested in 2005, 61 were selected and subsequently treated as pure lines. Agronomic performance trials were conducted on 61 of those TAM 94L-25 M lines along with the M0 check and two commercial cultivar checks, Fiber Max 832 and Phytogen 355, in 2008 and 2009 in College Station and Weslaco, Texas. Within-boll yield components were examined for 13 representative mutant lines and the three checks. TAM 94L-25 averaged 751 kg lint ha^-1, 31.1 mm UHML, 303 kN m kg^-1 fiber bundle strength, and 6.0 percent elongation. The 61 mutant lines yielded from 366 to 932 kg lint ha^-1, exhibited UHML from 24.3 to 34.9 mm, fiber bundle strengths of 261 to 333 kN m kg^-1, and elongations from 5.4 to 8.1 percent. Seed surface area of the TAM 94L-25 M-lines was between 99 and 124 mm^2, and fibers per unit seed surface area from 123 to 168 fibers mm^-2. The M0 parent, TAM 94L-25 averaged 125 mm^2 seed-1, and 128 fibers mm^-2. The data presented herein demonstrate that EMS-induced mutagenesis was successful in creating TAM 94L-25 M-lines with superior fiber and yield traits to that of the non-mutated, high fiber quality parent, TAM 94L-25.

The complex work of designing new ASICs today and the increasing costs of time to market (TTM) delays are putting high responsibility on the research and development teams to make fault free designs. The main purpose of implementing a static rule checking tool in the design flow today is to find errors and bugs in the hardware definition language (HDL) code as fast and soon as possible. The sooner you find a bug in the design, the shorter the turnaround time becomes, and thereby both time and money will be saved. There are a couple of tools in the market that performs static HDL analysis and they vary in both price and functionality. In this project mainly Atrenta Spyglass was evaluated but similar tools were also evaluated for comparison purpose. The purpose of this master thesis was to evaluate the need of implementing a rule checking tool in the design flow at the Digital ASIC department PDU Base Station development in Kista, who also was the commissioner for this project. Based on the findings in this project it is recommended that a static rule checking tool is introduced in the design flow at the ASIC department. However, in order to determine which of the different tools the following pointers should be regarded: • If the tool is only going to be used as for lint checks (elementary structure and code checks) on RTL, then the implementation of Mentors Design Checker is advised. • If the tool is going to be used for more sophisticated structural checks, clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, basic constraints checks, basic Clock Domain Crossings (CDC) checks, then Synopsys LEDA is advised. • If the tool is going to be used as for advanced structural checks, extensive clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, constraints checks, functional Design For Test (DFT) checks (as testmode signal propagation) and functional CDC checks on RTL as well as on netlist level, then Atrenta Spyglass is advised. The areas regarding checks that could be of interest for Ericsson is believed to be regular lint checks for RTL (naming, code and basic structure), clock/reset tree propagation (netlist and RTL), constraints and functional DFT checks (netlist and RTL).

No description available.

This research was focused on increasing the efficiency of upland cotton production in the northern cotton belt through the use of new fertilizer formulations, placement, and timings. The objectives of the experiments reported in this thesis were to: 1) evaluate the effects of side-dress potassium (K), sulfur (S), and boron (B) formulation and application timing on tissue nutrient levels during the bloom period; 2) evaluate lint yield response of cotton to different formulations of nitrogen (N), K, S and B applied at side-dress; and 3) compare 5x5 banding (5 cm beside and 5cm below the seed) and deep placement of complete N-P-K-S blends to current nutrient management strategies on early season plant growth, nodes above white flower, total nodes, petiole nutrient concentrations during bloom, and lint yield. Tissue S and B concentrations were increased more often than K concentrations when the nutrients were applied with side-dress N. When evaluating P and K placement, petiole P levels were found to be significantly higher in unfertilized plots when no side-dress N was applied. Phosphorus and K placement and/or rate had no effect on lint yield when N was applied at side-dress during the study. Environmental conditions potentially influenced the response to P and K placement as 5x5 placement produced yields significantly higher during 2013 growing season at location 1, while deep placement produced significantly higher yields in 2014 at location 3. As a result, Virginia nutrient management recommendations for cotton have been updated to incorporate management strategies to maximize lint yields. / Master of Science