Natural hydrocarbon seeps harbor distinctive geological, chemical, and biological features in the marine environment. This thesis verified remote sensing signatures of seeps using in-situ observation and repeated collections of satellite imagery. Bubble streams in the Gulf of Mexico water column from four natural seep sites on the upper continental slope were imaged by a side-scan sonar, which was operated from a submarine near the seafloor, and by acoustic profilers, which were operated from surface ships. These data were correlated with sea surface slicks imaged by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on the RADARSAT satellite. Comparing non-oily bubble streams from rapidly venting mud volcanoes with oily bubble streams from shallow deposits of gas hydrate showed that they produced notably different signatures. Non-oily bubbles produced high backscatter on the side-scan sonar records, but were difficult to detect with the acoustic profilers. Oily bubbles from hydrate deposits produced acoustic shadows on the side-scan sonar records. The oily bubbles generated clear signatures extending from the seafloor to the near surface on the acoustic profile records. RADARSAT SAR images verified the presence of surface oil slicks over the hydrate deposits, but not over the mud volcanoes. This indicates that SAR imagery will not be able to capture every oil and gas seep in a region because non-oily bubble streams do not create surface oil slicks. A total of 113 natural oily seep sources were identified based on surface slicks in eleven SAR images collected over the northern continental slope. A persistence analysis verified that SAR is a dependable tool for capturing oil slicks because 93.5% of the slick sources identified in the 2001 images were corroborated with slicks in the 2002 images. The sources ranged in depth from 100 to 2000 m and 79% of the sources were in 900 meters or greater of water. Seventy-six percent of the seep sources were associated with salt less than 1500 m below the seafloor and none of the sources were located in the bottom of salt withdrawal basins. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) proved to be a useful tool in these analyses.

Vertical mixing is an important process that relates surface fluxes to concentrations of pollutants and other chemical species in the atmosphere. Errors in vertical mixing have been identified as a major source of uncertainties in various atmospheric modeling efforts including tracer transport, weather forecasting, and regional climate simulation. This thesis aims to quantify uncertainties in model-derived mixed layer heights (zi) over North America through direct comparisons between radiosonde observations and four models at different months of the year 2004 through the bulk Richardson number method. Results of this study suggest that considerable errors in zi exist throughout the region with the spatial and temporal variations of the errors differ significantly among the selected models. Over all, errors in zi were larger in global models than in the limited area mesoscale models, and the magnitude of the random error was two times larger than the bias. Notably, spatial regions of with extremely large positive biases correspond to those with especially large random errors. The biases and random errors, however, were not correlated linearly nor can be easily used to predict each other. Uncertainties in model-derived zi were attributed, through errors in the bulk Richardson number, to temperature and horizontal winds. Errors in both horizontal winds and temperatures were found contributing more or less the same to uncertainties in zi, with relative errors in both variables being the greatest in the lowest part of the troposphere. Lastly, independent observations from the cooperative profiler network suggest that data assimilation did not add qualitative advantages for the comparisons presented in this study. The mixed layer height uncertainties demonstrated in this study may provide a guide for selecting a model to simulate regional scale atmospheric transport and for interpreting flux estimation and inversions studies.

A crescente complexidade dos programas de computador e o crescimento da carga de trabalho a qual eles são submetidos têm sido tendências recorrentes nos sistemas computacionais, em especial para sistemas distribuídos como aplicações web e sistemas corporativos. O aumento da carga de trabalho gera uma demanda por sistemas que façam melhor uso dos recursos computacionais disponíveis, enquanto a maior complexidade gera uma demanda por sistemas que se preocupem em minimizar o número de erros. Portanto, podem-se identificar dois objetivos a serem perseguidos pelos desenvolvedores de sistemas de software: melhorar o desempenho e aumentar a confiabilidade dos sistemas. A fim de alcançar os objetivos expostos, são desenvolvidos sistemas de monitoramento para automatizar a coleta e análise de dados sobre os sistemas computacionais alvo. O presente trabalho visa contribuir nos seguintes aspectos: na identificação dos dados relevantes para o monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas desenvolvidas para a plataforma Java; e na criação de uma ferramenta de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, explorando os novos recursos do JDK 1.5, bem como os recursos já disponíveis em Java, como carga dinâmica de classes e transformação de bytecodes A fim de avaliar a ferramenta proposta foram elaborados três estudos de caso: um utiliza uma aplicação existente sem necessidade de sua adaptação; outro avalia a sobrecarga da ferramenta frente a diferentes parâmetros; e o terceiro avalia o monitoramento de um sistema distribuído. Entende-se que a ferramenta atinge o objetivo de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, por meio da incorporação de técnicas e APIs distintas, ao permitir: o monitoramento de uma aplicação distribuída por meio do monitoramento de diversos nodos de tal aplicação concomitantemente; e a visualização das informações coletadas de forma online. Adicionalmente, a coleta simultânea de dados de diferentes nodos de uma aplicação distribuída pode ser útil para a descoberta de relações entre eventos que ocorrem durante a execução de tal aplicação. / The growing complexity of software and the increasing workload to which systems have been submitted are known trends in the computing system field, especially when distributed and web systems are considered. The increasing workload generates demand for systems that can make a better use of computing resources, while the increment of system complexity demands specific actions to prevent design faults. Therefore, software engineers have two main objectives to be concerned with: optimization and dependability. In order to accomplish these objectives, monitoring systems have been proposed to gather data from running systems so that their behavior can be analyzed. The present dissertation intends to contribute in the following domains: identifying relevant metrics for monitoring distributed Java applications; and developing a tool to monitor and profile distributed applications, using the new resources available in JDK 1 .5 as well as some already known techniques like dynamic classloading and bytecode instrumentation. In order to evaluate the proposed tool, three test cases have been developed: one with a well known application running without modification; another for evaluating the tools’ overhead in different scenarios; and a third one to evaluate a distributed application been monitored. We understand that the proposed tool is successful in monitoring distributed applications by the use of distinct APIs and techniques because: Nprof can monitor a distributed application by monitoring different nodes of the application simultaneously; and Nprof allows the online visualization of the collected data. Also, simultaneous collection of data from different nodes of a distributed application can be useful for discovering relations among events that occur during the execution of the application.

A crescente complexidade dos programas de computador e o crescimento da carga de trabalho a qual eles são submetidos têm sido tendências recorrentes nos sistemas computacionais, em especial para sistemas distribuídos como aplicações web e sistemas corporativos. O aumento da carga de trabalho gera uma demanda por sistemas que façam melhor uso dos recursos computacionais disponíveis, enquanto a maior complexidade gera uma demanda por sistemas que se preocupem em minimizar o número de erros. Portanto, podem-se identificar dois objetivos a serem perseguidos pelos desenvolvedores de sistemas de software: melhorar o desempenho e aumentar a confiabilidade dos sistemas. A fim de alcançar os objetivos expostos, são desenvolvidos sistemas de monitoramento para automatizar a coleta e análise de dados sobre os sistemas computacionais alvo. O presente trabalho visa contribuir nos seguintes aspectos: na identificação dos dados relevantes para o monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas desenvolvidas para a plataforma Java; e na criação de uma ferramenta de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, explorando os novos recursos do JDK 1.5, bem como os recursos já disponíveis em Java, como carga dinâmica de classes e transformação de bytecodes A fim de avaliar a ferramenta proposta foram elaborados três estudos de caso: um utiliza uma aplicação existente sem necessidade de sua adaptação; outro avalia a sobrecarga da ferramenta frente a diferentes parâmetros; e o terceiro avalia o monitoramento de um sistema distribuído. Entende-se que a ferramenta atinge o objetivo de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, por meio da incorporação de técnicas e APIs distintas, ao permitir: o monitoramento de uma aplicação distribuída por meio do monitoramento de diversos nodos de tal aplicação concomitantemente; e a visualização das informações coletadas de forma online. Adicionalmente, a coleta simultânea de dados de diferentes nodos de uma aplicação distribuída pode ser útil para a descoberta de relações entre eventos que ocorrem durante a execução de tal aplicação. / The growing complexity of software and the increasing workload to which systems have been submitted are known trends in the computing system field, especially when distributed and web systems are considered. The increasing workload generates demand for systems that can make a better use of computing resources, while the increment of system complexity demands specific actions to prevent design faults. Therefore, software engineers have two main objectives to be concerned with: optimization and dependability. In order to accomplish these objectives, monitoring systems have been proposed to gather data from running systems so that their behavior can be analyzed. The present dissertation intends to contribute in the following domains: identifying relevant metrics for monitoring distributed Java applications; and developing a tool to monitor and profile distributed applications, using the new resources available in JDK 1 .5 as well as some already known techniques like dynamic classloading and bytecode instrumentation. In order to evaluate the proposed tool, three test cases have been developed: one with a well known application running without modification; another for evaluating the tools’ overhead in different scenarios; and a third one to evaluate a distributed application been monitored. We understand that the proposed tool is successful in monitoring distributed applications by the use of distinct APIs and techniques because: Nprof can monitor a distributed application by monitoring different nodes of the application simultaneously; and Nprof allows the online visualization of the collected data. Also, simultaneous collection of data from different nodes of a distributed application can be useful for discovering relations among events that occur during the execution of the application.

Professionella tvättmaskiner ger upphov till dynamiska krafter som uppstår vid centrifugering. När dessa maskiner används på en släpvagn kan dessa stora krafter skada underlaget. För att undvika skador på släpvagnens underlag så är det viktigt att fördela och dämpa dessa krafter. Genom att konstruera ett fäste som innehåller något dämpningselement kan man dämpa och fördela dessa krafter. På uppdrag av Linneuniversitetet i Växjö och med samlad information från företaget Electorlux Wascator i Ljungby genomfördes detta arbete. Arbetets syfte är att få fram en fungerande produkt som säkerställer användningen av tvättmaskiner på en släpvagn utan att underlaget tar skada. Med hjälp av produktutvecklingsprocessen utvecklades ett fäste som har som en uppgift att fördela de stora krafterna som uppstår vid centrifugering. Fästet består av två balkar, varje balk består av två L-profiler som är ihopkopplade med en fackverkskonstruktion. Fästet är gjort av aluminium som har beteckningen SS6082 T6. Fyra stycken gummidämpare valdes för att sitta under varje infästningspunkt från tvättmaskinen till fästet.

abstract: With increasing transistor volume and reducing feature size, it has become a major design constraint to reduce power consumption also. This has given rise to aggressive architectural changes for on-chip power management and rapid development to energy efficient hardware accelerators. Accordingly, the objective of this research work is to facilitate software developers to leverage these hardware techniques and improve energy efficiency of the system. To achieve this, I propose two solutions for Linux kernel: Optimal use of these architectural enhancements to achieve greater energy efficiency requires accurate modeling of processor power consumption. Though there are many models available in literature to model processor power consumption, there is a lack of such models to capture power consumption at the task-level. Task-level energy models are a requirement for an operating system (OS) to perform real-time power management as OS time multiplexes tasks to enable sharing of hardware resources. I propose a detailed design methodology for constructing an architecture agnostic task-level power model and incorporating it into a modern operating system to build an online task-level power profiler. The profiler is implemented inside the latest Linux kernel and validated for Intel Sandy Bridge processor. It has a negligible overhead of less than 1\% hardware resource consumption. The profiler power prediction was demonstrated for various application benchmarks from SPEC to PARSEC with less than 4\% error. I also demonstrate the importance of the proposed profiler for emerging architectural techniques through use case scenarios, which include heterogeneous computing and fine grained per-core DVFS. Along with architectural enhancement in general purpose processors to improve energy efficiency, hardware accelerators like Coarse Grain reconfigurable architecture (CGRA) are gaining popularity. Unlike vector processors, which rely on data parallelism, CGRA can provide greater flexibility and compiler level control making it more suitable for present SoC environment. To provide streamline development environment for CGRA, I propose a flexible framework in Linux to do design space exploration for CGRA. With accurate and flexible hardware models, fine grained integration with accurate architectural simulator, and Linux memory management and DMA support, a user can carry out limitless experiments on CGRA in full system environment. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2013

A crescente complexidade dos programas de computador e o crescimento da carga de trabalho a qual eles são submetidos têm sido tendências recorrentes nos sistemas computacionais, em especial para sistemas distribuídos como aplicações web e sistemas corporativos. O aumento da carga de trabalho gera uma demanda por sistemas que façam melhor uso dos recursos computacionais disponíveis, enquanto a maior complexidade gera uma demanda por sistemas que se preocupem em minimizar o número de erros. Portanto, podem-se identificar dois objetivos a serem perseguidos pelos desenvolvedores de sistemas de software: melhorar o desempenho e aumentar a confiabilidade dos sistemas. A fim de alcançar os objetivos expostos, são desenvolvidos sistemas de monitoramento para automatizar a coleta e análise de dados sobre os sistemas computacionais alvo. O presente trabalho visa contribuir nos seguintes aspectos: na identificação dos dados relevantes para o monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas desenvolvidas para a plataforma Java; e na criação de uma ferramenta de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, explorando os novos recursos do JDK 1.5, bem como os recursos já disponíveis em Java, como carga dinâmica de classes e transformação de bytecodes A fim de avaliar a ferramenta proposta foram elaborados três estudos de caso: um utiliza uma aplicação existente sem necessidade de sua adaptação; outro avalia a sobrecarga da ferramenta frente a diferentes parâmetros; e o terceiro avalia o monitoramento de um sistema distribuído. Entende-se que a ferramenta atinge o objetivo de monitoramento de aplicações distribuídas, por meio da incorporação de técnicas e APIs distintas, ao permitir: o monitoramento de uma aplicação distribuída por meio do monitoramento de diversos nodos de tal aplicação concomitantemente; e a visualização das informações coletadas de forma online. Adicionalmente, a coleta simultânea de dados de diferentes nodos de uma aplicação distribuída pode ser útil para a descoberta de relações entre eventos que ocorrem durante a execução de tal aplicação. / The growing complexity of software and the increasing workload to which systems have been submitted are known trends in the computing system field, especially when distributed and web systems are considered. The increasing workload generates demand for systems that can make a better use of computing resources, while the increment of system complexity demands specific actions to prevent design faults. Therefore, software engineers have two main objectives to be concerned with: optimization and dependability. In order to accomplish these objectives, monitoring systems have been proposed to gather data from running systems so that their behavior can be analyzed. The present dissertation intends to contribute in the following domains: identifying relevant metrics for monitoring distributed Java applications; and developing a tool to monitor and profile distributed applications, using the new resources available in JDK 1 .5 as well as some already known techniques like dynamic classloading and bytecode instrumentation. In order to evaluate the proposed tool, three test cases have been developed: one with a well known application running without modification; another for evaluating the tools’ overhead in different scenarios; and a third one to evaluate a distributed application been monitored. We understand that the proposed tool is successful in monitoring distributed applications by the use of distinct APIs and techniques because: Nprof can monitor a distributed application by monitoring different nodes of the application simultaneously; and Nprof allows the online visualization of the collected data. Also, simultaneous collection of data from different nodes of a distributed application can be useful for discovering relations among events that occur during the execution of the application.

A presente pesquisa engloba a análise de diversos aspectos a respeito da avaliação de irregularidade longitudinal de pavimentos, tratando mais detidamente das situações em que tal avaliação é executada a partir de perfis longitudinais medidos com perfilômetros inerciais, tipo de equipamento que também é objeto de exame. A análise é iniciada com o entendimento da evolução histórica deste tipo de avaliação funcional que abrange não só os equipamentos, como também os métodos de avaliação e os índices de irregularidade utilizados no Brasil. O trabalho relata as principais etapas do desenvolvimento do perfilômetro inercial que foi usado nesta pesquisa, seus aspectos técnicos e operacionais, além dos resultados dos testes que evidenciaram seu funcionamento e também uma comparação com os resultados obtidos por um medidor de irregularidade do tipo resposta. A pesquisa é completada com uma série de análises a respeito do método mais adequado para a verificação do funcionamento de perfilômetros inerciais, abarcando importantes recomendações para a escolha e medição de perfis de referência indispensáveis em tais verificações. São discutidos importantes aspectos do processamento de perfis para a determinação do QI que concluíram pela indicação da redução do espaçamento entre pontos do perfil para 25 cm. As incertezas dos índices QI e IRI obtidos a partir de perfilômetros inerciais são também abordadas, sendo que se constatou que o índice QI é afetado por grandes comprimentos de onda que normalmente não são considerados como irregularidade. A correlação entre os índices QI e IRI é amplamente avaliada através de dados reais de perfis de centenas de quilômetros de rodovias, que evidenciaram a existência de grande dispersão em tal correlação indicando que o melhor é não correlacioná-los. Por fim, a pesquisa deixa como legado a proposta de um anteprojeto de norma brasileira para este tipo de avaliação que abarca os julgamentos de todo o trabalho. / This research includes de analysis of several aspects regarding longitudinal pavement roughness evaluation, more specifically when these evaluations are done using an inertial profiler - kind o equipment that is also an object of this study. The analysis is initiated with the comprehension of the historical evolution of this type of functional evaluation that not only encloses equipment, but also the methods and the roughness indexes more common in Brazil. The main stages throughout of the development of the inertial profiler used on this research, its technical and operational features, the results of the tests that proved its good functionality and also the comparison of the results obtained with a response type roughness meter were incorporated. The research is completed with a series of analysis regarding the methods more appropriate for the verification of inertial profilers functioning, including important recommendations for the choice and measurement of reference profiles, indispensable in such verifications. Important aspects concerning profiles processing for the QI determination were verified and concluded for reduction of the displacement between the profile elevations for 25 cm. The uncertainties of QI and IRI indexes obtained from inertial profiles measurements were also researched and at this opportunity it was verified that value of QI is affected by long wavelengths that usually are not considered roughness. The correlation between QI and IRI indexes were widely evaluated using real data of hundreds of kilometers of highways profiles, and evidenced the existence of a great dispersion in such correlation what indicates that the best recommendation is not to correlate them. Finally, this research leaves as a legacy the proposal of a first draft for a Brazilian standard for this type of roughness evaluation that accumulates most of the judgments presented here.

Målsättningen med färgåtergivning i katalogproduktion är att färgen på produkten i katalogen ska upplevas samma som färgen på själva produkten. ICSAB (IKEA Catalogue Services) producerar varje år IKEA-katalogen som innehåller ca 15000 olika produktbilder. Att reproducera dessa bilder är ett komplext problem som ställer höga krav på färghanteringssystemet, färgspecificering av produktfärger, färgverifieringsmetoder samt den visuella bedömningen av produktbilderna. Rapporten beskriver produktionsflödet på ICSAB från fotografering av produkterna i fotostudion till utmatning av förprovtryck. Utifrån detta arbetsflöde analyseras de faktorer som påverkar färgreproduktionen. Rapporten ger förslag på hur färghanteringen kan optimeras genom ICC-baserat färghanteringssystem med anpassade profiler för alla olika enheter i produktionen, vilka konverteringsmetoder som bör användas mellan de aktuella färgrymderna samt färghanteringsmodulens inverkan på färgreproduktionen. Rapporten ger även förslag på hur färgerna skall specificeras med uppmätta spektralfördelningar och LAB-värden för respektive produktfärg. Samt verifieras med hjälp av kvantitativa toleransmetoder så som CIELAB och eventuellt även elliptiska toleransmetoden CIE94 eller CIEDE2000. För att förbättra den visuella bedömningen av färgåtergivningen rekommenderas standardiserade betraktningsvillkor. Dessa bör omfatta belysningsvillkor med olika intensitetsnivåer, omgivningsförhållanden, betraktningsgeometri samt hur själva bedömningen bör utföras. De tester som utförts på ICSAB, för att se hur det nuvarande systemet reproducerar ett antal produktfärger, visar att gråtonerna reproduceras med mindre färgdifferens än färgtonerna. För att förbättra färgstyrningen och minska skillnaderna mellan original och reproduktion rekommenderas följande: - Att anpassade profiler för samtliga enheter i produktionen - Ett ICC-baserat färghanteringssystem för ökad kontroll över systemet Standardiserade betraktningsvillkor för den visuella färgbedömningen - Verifieringsmetoder för att kvantitativt kontrollera de reproducerade produktfärgerna

The market needs for embedded or mobile devices were exploding in the last few years. Customers demand for devices that not only have high capacity of managing various complex jobs, but also can do it fast. Manufacturers therefore, are looking for a new field of processors that fits the special needs of embedded market, for example low power consumption, highly integrated with most components, but also provides the ability to handle different use cases. The traditional ASICs satisfied the market with great performance-per-watt but limited scalability. ASIP processors on the other hand, impact the new market with the ability of high-speed optimized general computing while energy efficiency is only slightly lower than ASICs. One essential problem in ASIP design is how to find the algorithms that can be accelerated. Hardware engineers used to optimize the instruction set manually. But with the toolset introduced in this thesis, design automation can be made by program profiling and the development cycle can be trimmed therefore reducing the cost. Profiling is the process of exposing critical parts of a certain program via static code analysis or dynamic performance analysis. This thesis introduced a code profiler that targeted at discovering repetition section of a program through static and dynamic analysis. The profiler also measures the payload of each loop and provides profiling report with a user friendly GUI client.