Neste trabalho procurou-se avaliar o processo de construção e aplicação de modelos preditivos no meio florestal. Para tanto, no primeiro artigo parte-se de uma amostra destrutiva de 200 indivíduos de dez espécies arbóreas distintas, originárias do bioma Atlântico, testando-se três modelos teóricos comumente usados na predição de volume e biomassa, sendo a esses adicionados preditores informativos da densidade básica da árvore. Para a avaliação os modelos ajustados foram simuladas três situações preditivas distintas. Os resultados demonstraram que aplicar o modelo em situações distintas a da amostra de ajuste gera viés nas predições que, no entanto, é reduzido com a entrada dos referidos preditores. O segundo artigo apresenta aplicações da calibração do modelo linear de efeito misto na predição do volume em plantios de Eucalyptus grandis em primeira e segunda rotação. Para tanto, partiu-se do modelo de Schumacher e Hall, em sua forma linearizada, para o desenvolvimento modelo de efeitos mistos, que considerou alguns de seus parâmetros como sendo aleatórios ao longo das diferentes fazendas. A calibração foi realizada em nível de fazenda partindo-se de um pequeno número de árvores-amostra. A abordagem foi desenvolvida para modelos univariados de primeira rotação, além de modelos bivariados de duas rotações. Os resultados mostraram que o procedimento de calibração fornece predições mais confiáveis que a dos modelos tradicionais de efeitos fixos em ambas as rotações. O terceiro artigo apresenta aplicações da calibração do modelo linear de efeito misto na predição da biomassa de árvores de espécies nativas numa floresta Ombrófila densa. Partiuse do modelo de potência, em sua forma linearizada, para o desenvolvimento modelo de efeitos mistos e dois níveis: parcela e espécie, O ajuste do modelo foi feito considerando esses dois níveis, mas a calibração foi realizada em cada nível ignorando o efeito do outro, nível. Os resultados mostraram que o procedimento de calibração fornece predições mais confiáveis em nível de espécie que os modelos tradicionais. Em nível de parcela, a calibração não foi efetiva. / In this study we tried to evaluate the process of construction and application of predictive models in forestry. Therefore, in the first paper we started from a destructive sample of 200 individuals from ten different tree species, originating from the Atlantic biome. We tested three theoretical models commonly used to predict volume and biomass, which was added predictors related to tree basic density. To evaluate the models were simulated three different predictive situations. The results showed that applying the model in different situations from the sample generates bias on predictions; however, it is reduced by adding the referred predictors. The second article presents applications of linear mixedeffects models and calibration to predict the volume in Eucalyptus grandis plantations in first and second rotation. Therefore, we started with the model of Schumacher and Hall, in their linearized form to develop the mixed-effects model, which considered some of its parameters as random throughout the different farms. The calibration was performed at the farm level and starting from a small number of sample trees. The approach was developed to first rotation univariate models, and a bivariate model of both rotations. The results showed that the calibration procedure provides more reliable predictions than the traditional fixed effects models in both rotations. The third article presents applications of linear mixedeffects model and calibration to predict the biomass in a rain forest. We started from the power model, in its linearized form, for developing the mixed-effects model considering two levels of grouping: plot and species, Model fitting was made considering these two levels, but the calibration was performed on each level ignoring the other level effect. The results showed that the calibration procedure provides more reliable predictions at species level than traditional models. On the plot level, the calibration was not effective.

A regionalização hidrológica é uma técnica que permite transferir informação de regiões hidrologicamente monitoradas, para regiões com pouco ou sem monitoramento. Sendo assim, é uma ferramenta útil, a qual permite uma avaliação dinâmica dos recursos hídricos. No Brasil e no Estado de Santa Catarina as leis que são as principais referências para a gestão de recursos hídricos utilizam critérios anuais de disponibilidade hídrica, impossibilitando um maior uso em épocas onde a disponibilidade é maior e, assim, afetando o desenvolvimento econômico. As previsões sazonais servem de base para uma gestão e utilização sustentável dos recursos hídricos. A justificativa de não se usar critérios sazonais, talvez seja pelo fato de não existir trabalhos ou ferramentas que contemplam o estado da arte da regionalização hidrológica. O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer a regionalização hidrológica do Estado de Santa Catarina, mediante uma abordagem geoestatística baseada em modelos e na sazonalidade. Foram utilizados estações pluviométricas e fluviométricas disponibilizadas, respectivamente, pela Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (CPRM) e Agência Nacional das Águas (ANA). As estações são distribuídas regularmente e em alta densidade sobre o Estado. Para a modelagem geoestatística, inicialmente foi verificada algumas suposições a serem consideradas, entre elas, a normalidade e a estacionaridade espacial dos dados. Após as suposições terem sido aceitas foi verificado, por meio de testes estatísticos em função da verossimilhança, se a estrutura de dependência espacial do modelo geoestatístico aumentava o desempenho do mesmo, justificando o uso dessa estrutura para a espacialização das variáveis pluviométricas e fluviométricas. Para verificar os pressupostos de uma boa predição, foi avaliada a dispersão dos resíduos das interpolações espaciais, mediante uma validação cruzada. Os resultados mostraram um melhor desempenho para os modelos geoestatísticos com a estrutura de dependência espacial, para todas as variáveis; assim, esses modelos foram utilizados para a interpolação espacial, no qual foi observado pela dispersão dos resíduos uma boa predição. Este trabalho contribui para uma melhor representação espacial de variáveis sazonais no Estado de Santa Catarina e permite um avanço no estado da arte, uma vez que está embasado em critérios de verossimilhança para escolha de modelos que representam melhor o fenômeno estudado no espaço. / Hydrologic regionalization is a technique that allows the transfer of information from regions hydrologically monitored, for regions with little or no monitoring. Therefore, this technique allows a dynamic evaluation of water resources being a useful tool. In Brazil and in Santa Catarina state, the laws that are the main references for the management of water resources use annual criteria of water availability. Thus, using a greater amount of resources when availability is greater is infeasible and affects economic development. Seasonal forecasts provide the basis for sustainable management and use of water resources. The justification for not using seasonal criteria may be because there are no works or tools that contemplate the state of the art of hydrologic regionalization. The aim of this work is to make the hydrologic regionalization of Santa Catarina state, using a geostatistical approach based on models and in seasonality. Data from rain gauge and streamflow stations made available by the Mineral Resources Research Company (CPRM) and National Water Agency (ANA), respectively, were used. These stations have regular distribution and high density within the state. For the geostatistical modeling, some basic assumptions such as data normality and spatial stationarity were verified. After accepting the assumptions it was verified through statistical tests regarding its likelihood, if the structure of spatial dependence of the geostatistical model increase its performance, justifying the use of this structure for the precipitation and streamflow spatialization. To check the assumptions of good prediction, the residue dispersion of the spatial interpolations was evaluated through cross-validation. The results showed a better performance for the geostatiscal models with the spatial dependence structure, both for precipitation and streamflow. Thus, these models were used to the spatial interpolation, observing a good prediction through the residue dispersion. This work contributes to a better spatial representation of seasonal variables in Santa Catarina state and allows an advance in the state of the art, since it is based on likelihood criteria to choose models that better represent the phenomenon studied in space.

The estimation of the frequency and phase of a complex exponential in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is a fundamental and well-studied problem in signal processing and communications. A variety of approaches to this problem, distinguished primarily by estimation accuracy, computational complexity, and processing latency, have been developed. One class of approaches is based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) due to its connections with the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of frequency. This thesis compares several FFT-based approaches to the MLE in terms of their estimation accuracy and computational complexity. While FFT-based frequency estimation tends to be very accurate, the computational complexity of the FFT and the latency associated with performing these computations after the entire signal has been received can be prohibitive in some scenarios. Another class of approaches that addresses some of these shortcomings is based on linear regression of samples of the instantaneous phase of the observation. Linear- regression-based techniques have been shown to be very accurate at moderate to high signal to noise ratios and have the additional benefit of low computational complexity and low latency due to the fact that the processing can be performed as the samples arrive. These techniques, however, typically require the computation of four-quadrant arctangents, which must be approximated to retain low computational complexity. This thesis proposes a new frequency and phase estimator based on simple estimates of the zero-crossing times of the observation. An advantage of this approach is that it does not require arctangent calculations. Simulation results show that the zero-crossing frequency and phase estimator can provide high estimation accuracy, low computational complexity, and low processing latency, making it suitable for real-time applications. Accordingly, this thesis also presents a real-time implementation of the zero-crossing frequency and phase estimator in the context of a time-slotted round-trip carrier synchronization system for distributed beamforming. The experimental results show this approach can outperform a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) implementation of the same distributed beamforming system.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T19:25:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Denise.pdf: 4576988 bytes, checksum: e7402e2569d1f12da9ffb8dcadfd665c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-16 / Soy is one of the main crops in Brazil and in the region of Cascavel / PR, where agricultural production is large, although some factors that affect productivity, monitoring and process management have been diagnosed by geostatistical models for analysis of agricultural data. Studies on the spatial variability of soil attributes associated with soybean yield, provide recommendations for doses o with varied rates, according to the maps created by spatial models. The diagnostic study on influential points is a recommended procedure for studies on spatial variability. Detecting the influential points through local influence allows measuring the changes that these points have influence on and the construction of the thematic map. This paper aims to present studies on local influence in linear spatial models considering as dependent variable soybean yield and as covariates Carbon (C), Calcium (Ca), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn) and Phosphorus (P). The study on local influence is held in the response variable and the covariates using additive disturbances. The techniques of local influence diagnostics, according to the final results, were efficient in identifying outliers considered influential variables for the individual linear spatial model / A soja é uma das principais culturas agrícolas do Brasil, em particular da região de Cascavel/PR, onde a produção agrícola é grande, mas com fatores que afetam a produtividade, o monitoramento e o gerenciamento do processo, diagnosticados por modelos geoestatísticos para análise de dados agrícolas. Os estudos de variabilidade espacial dos atributos do solo, associados à produtividade da soja, possibilitam a recomendação da dosagem de insumos com taxas variadas, de acordo com os mapas construídos pelos modelos espaciais. O estudo de diagnóstico de pontos influentes é um procedimento recomendado nos estudos da variabilidade espacial. Detectar os pontos influentes, por meio da influência local, possibilita medir as alterações que esses pontos influenciam nos resultados e na construção do mapa temático. Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar estudos de influência local em modelos espaciais lineares, considerando como variável resposta a produtividade da soja e como covariáveis o Carbono (C), o Cálcio (Ca), o Potássio (K), o Magnésio (Mg), o Manganês (Mn) e o Fósforo (P). O estudo da influência local é realizado na variável resposta e nas covariáveis por meio de perturbações aditivas. As técnicas de influência local, de acordo com os resultados obtidos, foram eficientes na identificação de valores atípicos para as variáveis analisadas individualmente e utilizando modelo espacial linear

Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-12T14:46:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BrunaGabriela.pdf: 6387160 bytes, checksum: ceef577d779a115a95309a987a447380 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-20 / The objective of this paper was to present a study of spatial variability in different time periods of two experimental areas using geostatistical models scaling and spatial linear gaussian with multiple independent replications. In the first area under study, the scaling of semivariance function method and spatial linear model with multiple independent replications was used. The structures of spatial variability of the potassium content in soil and soybean yield in five agricultural years were compared. The results indicate similarity between the thematic maps produced according to individual models and maps generated using the model set to scaled semivariogram. The same happens to build thematic maps according to the individual models compared to maps generated according to the spatial linear models with multiple independent replications. Comparing the maps originated by the scaled model and spatial linear model with multiple repetitions, high levels of accuracy were obtained, which implies similarity of thematic maps built with these two methods. In the second area under study the interest was to use the spatial linear model with multiple independent replications to study the spatial variability of soybean yield in both years as a function of covariates soil resistance to penetration (RSP) and bulk density (Dens) in the layers 0-0.10, 0.10-0.20 and 0.20-0.30 m deep. In both studies, the structure of spatial variability estimated by spatial linear model with multiple independent replications caused reduction of computational time in the adjustment of models and the generation of thematic maps. / O objetivo deste trabalho foi apresentar um estudo de variabilidade espacial em diferentes períodos de tempo de duas áreas experimentais utilizando modelos geoestatísticos escalonados e espaciais lineares gaussianos com repetições múltiplas independentes. Na primeira área em estudo utilizou-se o método de escalonamento da função semivariância e o modelo espacial linear com repetições múltiplas independentes. Compararam-se as estruturas de variabilidade espacial do teor de potássio no solo e da produtividade da soja em cinco anos agrícolas. Os resultados indicam semelhança entre os mapas temáticos elaborados segundo os modelos individuais e os mapas gerados segundo o modelo ajustado ao semivariograma escalonado. O mesmo ocorreu ao construir mapas temáticos segundo os modelos individuais comparados aos mapas gerados segundo os modelos espaciais lineares com repetições múltiplas independentes. Ao comparar os mapas originados pelo modelo escalonado e o modelo espacial linear com repetições múltiplas independentes, obteve-se índices de acurácia altos, o que implica em semelhança dos mapas temáticos construídos com estes dois métodos. Na segunda área em estudo o interesse foi utilizar o modelo espacial linear com repetições múltiplas independentes para estudar a variabilidade espacial da produtividade da soja em dois anos agrícolas como função das covariáveis resistência do solo à penetração (RSP) e densidade do solo (Dens), nas camadas de 0-0,10, 0,10-0,20 e 0,20-0,30 m de profundidade. Em ambos os estudos, a estrutura de variabilidade espacial estimada pelo modelo espacial linear com repetições múltiplas independentes ocasionou redução do tempo computacional no ajuste dos modelos e na geração de mapas temáticos.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-12T14:48:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Denise.pdf: 4576988 bytes, checksum: e7402e2569d1f12da9ffb8dcadfd665c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-16 / Soy is one of the main crops in Brazil and in the region of Cascavel / PR, where agricultural production is large, although some factors that affect productivity, monitoring and process management have been diagnosed by geostatistical models for analysis of agricultural data. Studies on the spatial variability of soil attributes associated with soybean yield, provide recommendations for doses o with varied rates, according to the maps created by spatial models. The diagnostic study on influential points is a recommended procedure for studies on spatial variability. Detecting the influential points through local influence allows measuring the changes that these points have influence on and the construction of the thematic map. This paper aims to present studies on local influence in linear spatial models considering as dependent variable soybean yield and as covariates Carbon (C), Calcium (Ca), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn) and Phosphorus (P). The study on local influence is held in the response variable and the covariates using additive disturbances. The techniques of local influence diagnostics, according to the final results, were efficient in identifying outliers considered influential variables for the individual linear spatial model / A soja é uma das principais culturas agrícolas do Brasil, em particular da região de Cascavel/PR, onde a produção agrícola é grande, mas com fatores que afetam a produtividade, o monitoramento e o gerenciamento do processo, diagnosticados por modelos geoestatísticos para análise de dados agrícolas. Os estudos de variabilidade espacial dos atributos do solo, associados à produtividade da soja, possibilitam a recomendação da dosagem de insumos com taxas variadas, de acordo com os mapas construídos pelos modelos espaciais. O estudo de diagnóstico de pontos influentes é um procedimento recomendado nos estudos da variabilidade espacial. Detectar os pontos influentes, por meio da influência local, possibilita medir as alterações que esses pontos influenciam nos resultados e na construção do mapa temático. Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar estudos de influência local em modelos espaciais lineares, considerando como variável resposta a produtividade da soja e como covariáveis o Carbono (C), o Cálcio (Ca), o Potássio (K), o Magnésio (Mg), o Manganês (Mn) e o Fósforo (P). O estudo da influência local é realizado na variável resposta e nas covariáveis por meio de perturbações aditivas. As técnicas de influência local, de acordo com os resultados obtidos, foram eficientes na identificação de valores atípicos para as variáveis analisadas individualmente e utilizando modelo espacial linear

O mecanismo de divisão mais comum entre procariotos é a divisão binária, na qual a célula- mãe reparte seu genoma e conteúdo citoplasmático de forma igual entre duas células filhas. Esse processo é mediado por um complexo protéico especializado, chamado divisoma, composto por cerca de 20 proteínas, que promovem a constrição da parede celular e membrana citoplasmática, formando o septo de divisão. O complexo é organizado em torno do anel Z, uma estrutura em anel composta pela proteína FtsZ, um homólogo de tubulina presente na maioria dos procariotos e em algumas organelas de eucariotos. Partindo de um levantamento detalhado da distribuição dos genes do divisoma em genomas completos de procariotos, aplicamos métodos de máxima verossimilhança para inferência de estados ancestrais e reconstruímos o conteúdo gênico do divisoma no ultimo ancestral comum das bactérias atuais. Estendendo essas análises com a aplicação de métodos filogenéticos, inferimos os eventos responsáveis pelas variações de composição deste complexo, observadas entre os diferentes grupos de bactérias. Nossos resultados mostram que o último ancestral comum de todas as bactérias já possuía a maior parte dos componentes conhecidos do divisoma, sugerindo a existência de uma parede de peptideoglicano e a presença de um aparato molecular tão ou mais complexo que o observado nas linhagens atuais, incluindo a presença de componentes considerados acessórios e de distribuição relativamente restrita, como as proteínas envolvidas na localização do anel Z (sistema Min) e alguns efetores positivos da polimerização de FtsZ. Observamos também que a evolução do complexo não foi muito afetada por eventos de transferência lateral, mas apresenta vários exemplos de perda de genes, em especial em linhagens com genoma reduzido, o que sugere a redundância de vários componentes já presentes no ancestral e a freqüente redução da complexidade, pelo menos dos componentes centrais do divisoma. Episódios de expansão de famílias de componentes do divisoma em linhagens específicas e os mecanismos evolutivos responsáveis pela incorporação de tais variações são discutidos. A caracterização da história evolutiva detalhada do divisoma, aqui apresentada, poderá servir como ponto de partida para novas análises evolutivas e como base para elaboração de experimentos funcionais. / The most common cell division mechanism among prokaryotes is binary fission, where a mother cell partitions its cytoplasm and genome equally among two daughter cells. This process is mediated by a specialized protein complex, known as the divisome, composed of around 20 proteíns, that promotes constriction of the cell wall and cytoplasmic membrane, thus forming the division septa. The complex is organized around the Z-ring, a ring-shaped struture composed by FtsZ, a tubulin homolog present in most prokaryotes and some eukaryotic organelles. After a detailed revision of the distribution of divisome genes among completely sequenced prokaryotic genomes, we applied maximum likelihood methods for the inference of ancestral states and reconstructed the gene content of the divisome in the last common ancestor of all extant bacteria. We then performed phylogeneticanalysis of all cell division genes and inferred the series of events responsible for the observed variations of the complex´s composition among bactérial lineages and their common ancestor. Our results show that the last common ancestor of all bacteria already possessed most of the known divisome components, thus suggesting the existence of a peptidoglycan cell wall and the presence of a molecular apparatus, perhaps more complex than those found in extant bacteria, including the presence of some accessory components with a somewhat restricted distribution, like the proteíns involved in the localization of the Z-ring (Min sistem) and some positive effectors os FtsZ polimerization. We also observed that the complex´s evolution was almost never the subject of horizontasl gene transfer events, but shows several examples of gene loss, specially in lineages displaying clear signs of genome reduction, thus suggesting the redundancy of several components in the ancestral divisome and a certain degree complexity reduction, at least for core components of the divisome. Lineage specific expansion of divisome component and the evolutionary mechanisms behind such processes are discussed. This characterization of the detailed evolutionary history of the divisome might serve as a starting point for new evolutionary analysis and as a basis for the design of functional experiments.

Land cover change over time can be a useful indicator of variations in a watershed, such as the patterns of drought in an area. I present a case study using remotely sensed images from Landsat satellites for over a 30-year period to generate classifications representing land cover categories, which I use to quantify land cover change in the watershed areas that contribute to Malheur, Mud, and Harney Lakes. I selected images, about every 4 to 6 years from late June to late July, in an attempt to capture the peak vegetation growth and to avoid cloud cover. Complete coverage of the watershed required that I selected an image that included the lakes, an image to the North, and an image to the West of the lakes to capture the watershed areas for each chosen year. I used the watershed areas defined by the HUC-8 shapefiles. The relevant watersheds are called: Harney-Malheur Lakes, Donner und Blitzen, Silver, and Silvies watershed. To summarize the land cover classes that could be discriminated from the Landsat images in the area, I used an unsupervised classification algorithm called Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA) to identify different classes from the pixels. I then used the ISODATA results and visual inspection of calibrated Landsat images and Google Earth imagery, to create Regions of Interest (ROI) with the following land cover classes: Water, Shallow Water, Vegetation, Dark Vegetation, Salty Area, and Bare Earth. The ROIs were used in the following supervised classification algorithms: maximum likelihood, minimum distance, and Mahalanobis distance, to classify land cover for the area. Using ArcGIS, I removed most of the misclassified area from the classified images by the use of the Landsat CDR, combined the main, north, and west images and then extracted the watersheds from the combined image. The area in acres for each land cover class and watershed was computed and stored in graphs and tables.After comparing the three supervised classifications using the amount of area classified into each category, normalized area in each category, and the raster datasets, I determined that the minimum distance classification algorithm produced the most accurate land cover classification. I investigated the correlation of the land cover classes with the average precipitation, average discharge, average summer high temperature, and drought indicators. For the most part, the land cover changes correlate with the weather. However, land use changes, groundwater, and error in the land cover classes may have accounted for the instances of discrepancy. The correlation of land cover classes, except Dark Vegetation and Bare Earth, are statistically significant with weather data. This study shows that Landsat imagery has the necessary components to create and track land cover changes over time. These results can be useful in hydrological studies and can be applied to models.

Ordinal response variables abound in scientific and quantitative analyses, whose outcomes comprise a few categorical values that admit a natural ordering, so that their values are often represented by non-negative integers, for instance, pain score (0-10) or disease severity (0-4) in medical research. Ordinal variables differ from rational variables in that its values delineate qualitative rather than quantitative differences. In this thesis, we develop new statistical methods for variable selection in a high-dimensional cumulative link regression model with an ordinal response. Our study is partly motivated by the needs for exploring the association structure between disease phenotype and high-dimensional medical covariates. The cumulative link regression model specifies that the ordinal response of interest results from an order-preserving quantization of some latent continuous variable that bears a linear regression relationship with a set of covariates. Commonly used error distributions in the latent regression include the normal distribution, the logistic distribution, the Cauchy distribution and the standard Gumbel distribution (minimum). The cumulative link model with normal (logit, Gumbel) errors is also known as the ordered probit (logit, complementary log-log) model. While the likelihood function has a closed-form solution for the aforementioned error distributions, its strong nonlinearity renders direct optimization of the likelihood to sometimes fail. To mitigate this problem and to facilitate extension to penalized likelihood estimation, we proposed specific minorization-maximization (MM) algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation of a cumulative link model for each of the preceding 4 error distributions. Penalized ordinal regression models play a role when variable selection needs to be performed. In some applications, covariates may often be grouped according to some meaningful way but some groups may be mixed in that they contain both relevant and irrelevant variables, i.e., whose coefficients are non-zero and zero, respectively. Thus, it is pertinent to develop a consistent method for simultaneously selecting relevant groups and the relevant variables within each selected group, which constitutes the so-called bi-level selection problem. We have proposed to use a penalized maximum likelihood approach with a composite bridge penalty to solve the bi-level selection problem in a cumulative link model. An MM algorithm was developed for implementing the proposed method, which is specific to each of the 4 error distributions. The proposed approach is shown to enjoy a number of desirable theoretical properties including bi-level selection consistency and oracle properties, under suitable regularity conditions. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed method enjoys good empirical performance. We illustrated the proposed methods with several real medical applications.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a type of remote sensor that provides its own illumination and is capable of forming high resolution images of the reflectivity of a scene. The reflectivity of the scene that is measured is dependent on the choice of carrier frequency; different carrier frequencies will yield different images of the same scene. There are different modes for SAR sensors; two common modes are spotlight mode and stripmap mode. Furthermore, SAR sensors can either be continuously transmitting a signal, or they can transmit a pulse at some pulse repetition frequency (PRF). The work in this dissertation is for pulsed stripmap SAR sensors. The resolvable limit of closely spaced reflectors in range is determined by the bandwidth of the transmitted signal and the resolvable limit in azimuth is determined by the bandwidth of the induced azimuth signal, which is strongly dependent on the length of the physical antenna on the SAR sensor. The point-spread function (PSF) of a SAR system is determined by these resolvable limits and is limited by the physical attributes of the SAR sensor. The PSF of a SAR system can be defined in different ways. For example, it can be defined in terms of the SAR system including the image processing algorithm. By using this definition, the PSF is an algorithm-specific sinc-like function and produces the bright, star-like artifacts that are noticeable around strong reflectors in the focused image. The PSF can also be defined in terms of just the SAR system before any image processing algorithm is applied. This second definition of the PSF will be used in this dissertation. Using this definition, the bright, algorithm-specific, star-like artifacts will be denoted as the inter-pixel interference (IPI) of the algorithm. To be specific, the combined effect of the second definition of PSF and the algorithm-dependent IPI is a decomposition of the first definition of PSF. A new comprehensive forward model for stripmap SAR is derived in this dissertation. New image formation methods are derived in this dissertation that invert this forward model and it is shown that the IPI that corrupts traditionally processed stripmap SAR images can be removed. The removal of the IPI can increase the resolvability to the resolution limit, thus making image analysis much easier. SAR data is inherently corrupted by uncompensated phase errors. These phase errors lower the contrast of the image and corrupt the azimuth processing which inhibits proper focusing (to the point of the reconstructed image being unusable). If these phase errors are not compensated for, the images formed by system inversion are useless, as well. A model-based autofocus method is also derived in this dissertation that complements the forward model and corrects these phase errors before system inversion.