Dans plusieurs écosystèmes, les pics sont considérés comme des espèces clés. Cette désignation provient principalement de leur capacité à excaver des cavités qui seront ensuite disponibles pour plusieurs animaux cavicoles incapables de creuser leur propre cavité. De plus, leur sensibilité à la perte d'attributs forestiers, comme le bois mort et les arbres de gros diamètre, en font de bons bio-indicateurs de la qualité de l'habitat et de la biodiversité. Dans notre aire d'étude, le Pic maculé (Sphyrapicus varius) représente l'excavateur fournissant le plus grand nombre de cavités et les utilisateurs secondaires de petite taille sont grandement liés à la disponibilité des cavités créées par cette espèce. La sensibilité du Pic maculé à la perte de substrats de nidification, la perte de forêt mature et la fragmentation ont déjà été relevées dans la littérature scientifique. La présente étude a donc pour but d'évaluer la qualité des parcelles résiduelles linéaires de forêt mature qui ont été épargnées par la coupe forestière, pour les besoins écologiques du Pic maculé. Cette étude s'inscrit dans une évaluation de l'importance du maintien de ces parcelles résiduelles de forêts âgées (> 80 ans) alors que la réglementation québécoise ne garantit pas leur protection à long terme. Le premier chapitre compare la disponibilité et l'utilisation des substrats de nidification et d'alimentation du Pic maculé entre les parcelles de forêts âgées d'un paysage aménagé par la coupe et la forêt âgée d'un paysage sous régime de perturbations naturelles. Les données proviennent essentiellement d'un inventaire des arbres de 10 cm et plus de diamètre à hauteur de poitrine (dhp) dans des quadrats de 0,04 hectare (ha). Ces quadrats ont été disposés de façon systématique dans les sites des deux paysages, mais également autour d'arbres de nidification actifs. Les analyses montrent que la densité de substrats de nidification est similaire entre les deux types de paysages. Par contre, les parcelles résiduelles du paysage aménagé sont les hôtes d'une plus forte infection par un champignon (Phellinus tremulae) qui facilite l'excavation des substrats par le Pic maculé. De plus, les peupliers faux-tremble (Populus tremuloides) de gros diamètres sont davantage présents dans les quadrats situés autour des substrats de nidification que dans les quadrats systématiques situés dans les sites d'étude et ce, pour les deux types de paysages. Enfin, le Pic maculé utilise davantage le sapin baumier (Abies balsamea), l'aulne rugueux (Alnus rugosa) et les saules (Salix sp.) comme substrats d'alimentation dans le paysage aménagé. Le deuxième chapitre évalue dans les mêmes paysages la qualité de l'habitat au moyen de mesures directes portant sur les paramètres de l'activité reproductrice et de l'activité d'alimentation du Pic maculé pendant la saison de reproduction. Ces données ont été recueillies en effectuant, pendant quatre étés, le suivi de nids actifs à l'aide d'une caméra fixée à une pôle télescopique. Nous avons également effectué des suivis du comportement d'alimentation des oisillons par les adultes à l'aide d'un télescope et d'une caméra. Ces suivis nous ont permis de comparer la fréquence à laquelle les adultes nourrissent les jeunes et la grosseur des bols alimentaires qu'ils rapportent au nid. Nous avons également fait le suivi des trajectoires utilisées par les adultes lorsqu'ils recherchent la nourriture dans le milieu. Les résultats montrent que 1) le succès reproducteur, 2) la fréquence d'alimentation des jeunes, 3) la grosseur des bols alimentaires rapportés aux jeunes ainsi que 4) les patrons de déplacement des adultes pour rechercher la nourriture, sont tous similaires entre les deux types de paysages. Dans l'ensemble, les forêts résiduelles dans le territoire aménagé représentent un habitat de bonne qualité pour répondre aux besoins écologiques du Pic maculé, notamment par leur disponibilité en substrats d'alimentation et de nidification. De plus, cette étude suggère que l'activité reproductrice du Pic maculé dans les forêts résiduelles du paysage aménagé peut contribuer au maintien de populations locales dans cet environnement. Elle indique également par la productivité élevée qui y est observée, que les forêts résiduelles des paysages aménagés ne sont pas des habitats "fuites" (Pulliam, 1988) pour le Pic maculé, mais qu'au contraire ils peuvent contribuer de manière positive au maintien de populations locales de cette espèce dans notre secteur d'étude. Enfin, cette étude montre que le rôle fonctionnel du Pic maculé quant à sa capacité à creuser des cavités utilisables par d'autres espèces est maintenu dans les forêts âgées résiduelles de paysages aménagés. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Pic maculé, qualité d'habitat, succès de reproduction, alimentation, parcelle résiduelle de forêt âgée, paysage aménagé, forêt boréale mixte, aménagement forestier.

In this thesis, the automation of the long term and cyclic processes by using a programmable control unit is aimed. To achieve this goal, timing relays and various microcontrollers are investigated. PIC microcontroller is chosen to implement the control unit due to its advantages like high speed, Harvard and RISC architecture, low cost and flexibility for programming. Theory of the PIC microcontrollers is studied and a controller unit to be used in the mentioned processes is designed. Some features are added to the device to widen the application fields and consequently a multi-purpose programmable controller is realized. In the device, Microchip PIC16F877 is used as the microcontroller. The code of the controller is written in Assembly Language and is compiled with MPASM. This controller counts the signals coming from internal Timer 555 or external signals and activates ten different outputs in order. The operating times of the outputs can be changed by a keypad and shown in a display. By keeping the number of the used ports of the microcontroller, as few as possible, room for the future improvements and additions is provided.

This thesis explains the design of a microcontroller-based device, which provides an efficient and practical alternative for the remote reading of digital electricity meters over Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN). As an alternative application, a system is constructed providing file transfer capability to the PC connected to the port of implemented device in addition to remote reading of digital electricity meters. This thesis also provides detailed explanations about the basics of serial asynchronous communication over modem for PICs (peripheral interface controllers) together with description of each component included by the constructed system, which can be used in energy metering sector commonly.

In this thesis a microcontroller core is developed in an FPGA. Its instruction set is compatible with the microcontroller PIC16XX series by Microchip Technology. The microcontroller employs a RISC architecture with separate busses for instructions and data. Our goal in this research is to implement and evaluate the design in the FPGA. Increasing performance and gate capacity of recent FPGA devices permits complex logic systems to be implemented on a single programmable device. Such a growing complexity demands design approaches, which can lead to designs containing millions of logic gates, memories, high-speed interfaces, and other high-performance components. In recent years, the continuous development in the area of highly integrated circuits has lead to a change in the design methods used, making it possible to economically utilize FPGAs in many designs. A test demo board from the Digilent Inc is used to fit our testing requirements of the RISC microcontroller. The test demo board also had the capability of communicating with a personal computer (PC) so that we can load the program from PC. Based on the modern design methods the microcontroller core is developed using the Verilog hardware description language. Xilinx ISE Foundation 6.3i software is used for its synthesis and implementation. An embedded test program code using MPLAB is also developed, and then loaded into the designed microcontroller residing in the FPGA. In order to perform a functional test of the microcontroller core a special test program downloader application is designed by using Borland C++ Builder. First, the specification from the PIC16XX datasheet is transferred into an abstract behavioral description. Based on that, the next step is to develop a description of the microcontroller core with some minor modifications which can be synthesizable into a FPGA. Finally, the resulting gate level netlist is evaluated and tested using a demo board.

Master of Engineering (Research) / Multiple antenna systems are an appealing candidate for emerging fourth-generation wireless networks due to its potential to exploit space diversity for increasing conveyed throughput without wasting bandwidth and power resources. Particularly, layered space-time architecture (LST) proposed by Foschini, is a technique to achieve a significant fraction of the theoretical capacity with a reasonable implementation complexity. There has been a great deal of challenges in the detection of space-time signal; especially to design a low-complexity detector, which can efficiently remove multi-layer interference and approach the interference free bound. The application of iterative principle to joint detection and decoding has been a promising approach. It has been shown that, the iterative receiver with parallel interference canceller (PIC) has a low linear complexity and near interference free performance. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the performance of digital communication systems can be considerably improved once the channel state information (CSI) is used to optimize the transmit signal. In this thesis, the problem of the design of a power allocation strategy in LST architecture to simultaneously optimize coding, diversity and weighting gains is addressed. A more practical scenario is also considered by assuming imperfect CSI at the receiver. The effect of channel estimation errors in LST architecture with an iterative PIC receiver is investigated. It is shown that imperfect channel estimation at an LST receiver results in erroneous decision statistics at the very first iteration and this error propagates to the subsequent iterations, which ultimately leads to severe degradation of the overall performance. We design a transmit power allocation policy to take into account the imperfection in the channel estimation process. The transmit power of various layers is optimized through minimization of the average bit error rate (BER) of the LST architecture with a low complexity iterative PIC detector. At the receiver, the PIC detector performs both interference regeneration and cancellation simultaneously for all layers. A convolutional code is used as the constituent code. The iterative decoding principle is applied to pass the a posteriori probability estimates between the detector and decoders. The decoder is based on the maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithms. A closed-form optimal solution for power allocation in terms of the minimum BER is obtained. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes, substantial simulation results are provided.

Background: Kiribati has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world. A major consequence of diabetes is amputation which creates a demand for prosthetic and orthotic services. It is well established that people with amputations who do not have access to a prosthesis experience difficulties with their mobility and participation in society. Aim: To describe activity and participation at home and in the community for individuals who have received a lower limb prosthesis in Kiribati. Method: This study is based on qualitative interviews using a semi-structured approach with seven participants from Kiribati who have been fitted with lower-limb prostheses. Recorded interviews were performed. Results: The study yielded two main categories which led to the participants becoming more independent: the effect of mobility and the importance of relationships. Conclusion: Activity and participation increased in individuals who use a prosthesis as a result of diabetes type 2, compared to those who do not use a prosthesis. Prosthetic use contributes to increased mobility, which affects activity and participation, in turn leading to greater satisfaction in life. Caution should be taken with regard to these conclusions because the gender distribution did not meet the requirements for variation, making it difficult to generalize the results to the population. / Bakgrund: Kiribati har en av den högsta prevalensen av diabetes i världen. En stor konsekvens av diabetes är amputation vilket leder till behov av protes- och ortos service. Svårigheter med mobilitet och delaktighet i samhället har visats för personer som är amputerade men inte har tillgång till protes. Syfte: Beskriva aktivitet och delaktighet i hemmet och i samhället för individer som har fått en protes till nedre extremiteten.  Metod: Denna studie är baserad på kvalitativa intervjuer och använder ett semi-strukturerad metod. Sju deltagare från Kiribati med nedre extremitets protes deltog. Inspelade intervjuer genomfördes. Resultat: Studien resulterade i två huvudkategorier, effekten av mobilitet och vikten av relationer. Mobilitet möjliggjorde aktivitet och delaktighet vilket ledde till att deltagarna blev mer självständiga. Nära relationer och hjälp från familjen visade sig viktig efter tillgång till protes. Slutsats: Aktivitet och delaktighet ökade hos individer som till följd av diabetes typ 2 använder sig av protes, i jämförelse med dem som inte använder protes. Protesanvändning bidrar till en ökad mobilitet som påverkar aktivitet och delaktighet vilket leder till högre tillfredställelse i livet. Dessa slutsatser skall dock tas med aktsamhet med anledning av att könsfördelningen inte mötte upp kraven på variation, vilket gör det svårt att generalisera resultatet till populationen.

Dans ce travail, nous aborderons la problématique du dépiégeage et de la dynamique des vortex (élastiques ou plastiques) en présence de centres d’ancrage (0D ou 1D). Les résultats, discutés ici, ont été obtenus par des mesures de magnétotransport . L’effet des interactions vortex-vortex sur la dynamique au voisinage du seuil de dépiégeage a été étudié pour des microponts monocristallins de Bi-2212 bruts de tirage (défauts ponctuels) ou irradiés aux ions lourds de haute énergie parallèlement à l’axe cristallographique (défauts colonnaires ou DC). Les mesures ont été effectuées à basse température (5 K) et au voisinage de en fonction du champ magnétique .A 5 K, nos résultats mettent en évidence un effet de pic à ainsi qu’un phénomène d’hystérésis dans la dépendance en de attribués à un changement de mécanisme de dépiégeage et de dynamique. La dépendance en des courbes a également permis la mise en évidence d’un ou plusieurs pics dans la dépendance en B de la résistance dynamique . De plus, la loi de type a pu être vérifiée. L’exposant critique obtenu varie suivant que est inférieur ou supérieur à ; et ce, que les microponts soient ou non irradiés. Les différentes valeurs de sont expliquées par les différents types de désancrage mis en jeu.Au voisinage de , nos résultats montrent un dépiégeage successif des vortex (vortex interstitiels puis vortex localisés sur les DC). Les courbes obéissent à une loi de type . Les différentes valeurs de obtenues sont discutées en fonction de la dimensionnalité des vortex (2D ou 3D). Finalement, l’effet de l’application d’une composante perpendiculaire sur la délocalisation des vortex a été étudié à basse et à haute température. Nos résultats montrent clairement l’existence de un ou plusieurs angles critiques de délocalisation. / In this work, we deal with depinning and dynamics of vortices (plastic or elastic) with or without pinning centers (0D or 1D). Results were obtained using measurements.Effects of votex-vortex interactions in the vicinity of have been studied for single crystal microbridge of Bi-2212 unirradiated and irradiated with heavy ions parallel to the cristallographic axis (columnar defects or CD). measuremants have been made at low temperature (5 K) and in the vicinity of at different magnetic field .At 5 K, our results show a peak effect at and a hystheresis phenomena for the dependence of which have been attributed to a change in the depinning mechanism and dynamics. The dependence of curves also reveals the presence of one ore more peaks in the dependence of the dynamical resistance . More, the typical law has been verified. The obtained critical exponent varies for lower or higher than for both irradiated and unirradiated samples. The different values are explained by the different depinning mechanisms.In the vicinity of , our results show a two steps depinning mechanism (interstitial vortex and, after, ones which are lodalized on CD). curves obey almost the same law as at low temperature : . The different obtained values are discussed in the framework of the vortex dimensionality (2D or 3D).Finally, the effect of the application of a perpendicular magnetic field component on the vortex delocalization has been studied at both low and high temperature. Our results clearly show the existence of one or more critical angle for the delocalization process.

This thesis identifies the obstacles in efficient modelling of interaction of plasma and solid surfaces. It presents an enhanced method of solving the Poisson equation optimized to meet the requirements of the Particle-in-Cell modelling approach. A number of applications are discussed, including models of the plasma-facing wall of the nuclear fusion device, tokamak, and its interaction with particle fluxes driven by the intrinsic magnetic field. Another area of applications covers the modelling of plasma probes deployed to diagnose properties of plasma in various experiments. The thesis also includes the computer library code and instructions enabling a rapid use of the Poisson solver method in a third party computer code which implements the PIC approach in a compatible manner.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-03-09T23:21:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FernandoHiltonTeixeiraFerreira_DISSERT.pdf: 1937669 bytes, checksum: ab2c6ea4c4d6f20c9efb77888d1b3a72 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-03-11T21:48:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FernandoHiltonTeixeiraFerreira_DISSERT.pdf: 1937669 bytes, checksum: ab2c6ea4c4d6f20c9efb77888d1b3a72 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-11T21:48:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FernandoHiltonTeixeiraFerreira_DISSERT.pdf: 1937669 bytes, checksum: ab2c6ea4c4d6f20c9efb77888d1b3a72 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-25 / Este trabalho trata da especifica??o e da implementa??o de um protocolo para controlar a comunica??o entre dois microcontroladores (PICs), utilizando como meio de transmiss?o a rede el?trica, tornando a comunica??o mais segura e economicamente vi?vel. O Protocolo foi implementado em linguagem de programa??o C, tendo como refer?ncia alguns protocolos desenvolvidos para uso automobil?stico. Foi implementado tamb?m um circuito para testar a comunica??o PLC e o Protocolo. / This work deals with the specification and the implementation of a protocol for controlling communication between two programmable interface microcontrollers (PIC), using power line communication (PLC), making communication more secure and economically viable. The Protocol was implemented in C language, with reference to some protocols developed for automotive use. A circuit to test the communication between the PLC and the Protocol was also implemented.

Submitted by Cláudia Bueno (claudiamoura18@gmail.com) on 2016-04-04T19:57:21Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese- Robertha Augusta Vasconcelos Garcia - 2009.pdf: 2415126 bytes, checksum: 9b586c8248beb55e79f44e19660ab318 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-04-05T10:44:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese- Robertha Augusta Vasconcelos Garcia - 2009.pdf: 2415126 bytes, checksum: 9b586c8248beb55e79f44e19660ab318 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-05T10:44:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese- Robertha Augusta Vasconcelos Garcia - 2009.pdf: 2415126 bytes, checksum: 9b586c8248beb55e79f44e19660ab318 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / From the 50 described species of the Phaseolus genera, Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) is the most cultivated in the world and occupies 85% of the total production area. Brazil has an outstanding position in the world scenario and is considered the main grower, contributing with 17.58% of total production in an area estimated in 4.01 million hectares. Among grain legumes, common bean is the most important for direct human consumption, representing an important source of protein, amino-acids and minerals in the diet of Brazilian population. Breeding programs have searched for ways to increase productivity and simultaneously enhance its nutritional value and decrease the cooking time. The demand on the use of molecular tools has increased in the past few years, aiming to generate information that can be used in genetic breeding programs. This work presents two studies that were conducted from the development of a set of microsatellite markers derived from expressed sequences and genomic libraries. In the first study EST-SSR markers developed with a set of genomic SSR were evaluated for their amplification quality, transferability, genic information content and polymorphism in the Bat 93 x Jalo EEP558 population study. A total of markers 377 EST-SRR were developed, from which 80% showed PCR amplification products. For the transferability analysis 65 EST-SSR and an additional set of 102 genomic SSR were selected, from which 82% were transferred to, at least, one of the 10 legume species evaluated, where the higher amplification rate was observed between species from the Phaseolus genera (63.67%) and the lower was observed for the Arachis (1.8%). In the characterization of 167 SSR, 72% were polymorphic and the mean estimated PIC varied from 0.53 for genomic SSR to 0.47 to EST-SSR. The analysis of polymorphism in the BJ population revealed that from the 315 markers (302 EST - SSR and 13 genomic), 24% were polymorphic and incorporated to the common bean reference map, totalizing 180 mapped loci with a total map distance of 1154.63cM. The second study presents the construction of a genetic map using a population derived from the cross CNFM 7875 x Laranja, where 132 families were obtained and evaluated in three generations, three locations and four experiments where the genotypic data were obtained. A set of 1,034 SSR loci were tested for polymorphism and 105 (10%) were polymorphic and 93 were mapped on 12 linkage groups with a total map length of 1,369.9cM. The analysis of the phenotypic data indicated that the families show great variability for cooking time. The coefficients of heritability between the means varied between 42.89% and 62.85%. QTL mapping was performed using composite interval mapping and eight regions were associated to the control of this trait, varying from 2 to 4 QTL in generations F2:3 e F2:5, respectively. Significant interactions were observed between QTL and locations, but one QTL was stable between generations conducted in the same environment. The proportion of the phenotypic variation explained by the QTL varied from 3.35% to 21.77%. / Das 50 espécies do gênero Phaseolus descritas, a espécie Phaseolus vulgaris (feijoeiro comum) é a mais cultivada no mundo, ocupando 85% da área total de produção. O Brasil ocupa posição de destaque, sendo o maior produtor mundial, contribuindo com 17,58% da produção total, com área de cultivo estimada em 4,01 milhões de ha. Dentre os legumes de grãos, o feijoeiro comum é o mais importante para o consumo direto humano em todos os continentes, representando uma importante fonte de proteínas, aminoácidos e minerais na dieta alimentar da população brasileira. Programas de melhoramento têm buscado meios de aumentar a produtividade de grãos, aliado a um incremento no valor nutricional e ao atendimento às exigências do consumidor, como a maior facilidade no preparo do alimento. A demanda pelo uso de ferramentas moleculares tem aumentado nos últimos anos visando gerar informações que possam ser agregadas aos programas de melhoramento genético. Esse trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de dois estudos que foram conduzidos a partir do desenvolvimento de uma bateria de marcadores microssatélites derivados de seqüências expressas e bibliotecas genômicas. No primeiro estudo, os marcadores EST-SSR desenvolvidos, juntamente com um conjunto de SSRs genômicos, foram avaliados quanto à capacidade de amplificação, transferibilidade, conteúdo de informação gênica e polimorfismo na população Bat 93 x Jalo EEP558 (BJ) para fins de mapeamento. Foram sintetizados 377 EST-SSR, dos quais 80% amplificaram produto de PCR. Para a análise de transferibilidade, foram selecionados 65 EST-SSR e um conjunto adicional de 102 SSR genômicos, dos quais 82% foram transferíveis para, pelo menos, uma das 10 espécies de leguminosas avaliadas, onde o maior índice de amplificação foi observado entre as espécies do gênero Phaseolus (63,67%) e o menor para Arachis (1,8%). Na análise de caracterização dos 167 SSR, 72% foram polimórficos e as estimativas de PIC médio variaram de 0,53 para os SSRs genômicos a 0,47 para os EST-SSR. Quanto ao polimorfismo na população BJ, dos 315 testados (302 EST-SSR e 13 genômicos), 24% foram polimórficos e integrados no mapa de referência da cultura do feijoeiro comum, totalizando 180 locos mapeados, compreendendo uma distância total de mapa de 1154,63 cM. O segundo trabalho apresenta a construção de um mapa genético utilizando uma população derivada do cruzamento CNFM7875 x Laranja, onde foram geradas 132 famílias que foram avaliadas em três gerações e em quatro ambientes dos quais foram obtidos os dados fenotípicos. Uma bateria de 1.034 locos SSR foram avaliados quanto ao polimorfismo, onde apenas 105 (10%) segregaram e 93 foram mapeados em 12 grupos de ligação, com uma extensão final de mapa de 1.369,9 cM. A análise dos dados fenotípicos indicou que as famílias são amplamente variáveis para o tempo de cocção, apresentando coeficientes de herdabilidade no sentido amplo, que variaram de 42,89% a 62,85%. O mapeamento de QTL, utilizando o método de intervalo composto, identificou oito regiões associadas ao controle dessa característica, variando de 2 a 4 QTL na gerações F2:3 e F2:5. Foram observadas interações significativas entre QTL por locais. Porém, foi identificado um (1) QTL estável entre gerações conduzidas em um mesmo ambientes. A proporção da variação fenotípica explicada pelos QTL detectados variou de 3,35% até 21,77%.