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X-ray crystallography is a form of microscopy that allows the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms belonging to molecules within crystals to be determined. In this method, a crystal is illuminated with a beam of X-rays and the diffracted amplitudes resulting from the illumination are measured and computationally processed to enable the electron density of the unit molecule, or the unit cell, constituting the crystal to be calculated. The recent development of the X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) provides new routes for determining molecular structures via its ability to generate intense but brief X-ray pulses. These new instruments enable diffraction measurements to be obtained from crystals that have a small number of unit cells, referred to as nanocrystals, and molecular structure determination via this technique is known as serial femtosecond nanocrystallography (SFX). This thesis is concerned with the characterisation of diffraction data obtained from SFX experiments and the techniques for reconstructing the electron density of the molecule from such data. The noise characteristics of diffraction measurements from nanocrystals is developed. Methods for directly inverting nanocrystal diffraction to obtain the electron density of the molecule are analysed and an approach to ameliorate the effect of noise is proposed and evaluated by simulation. A model for diffraction by nanocrystals that include the effects of different unit cell arrangements and incomplete unit cells on the crystal surface is also developed and explored by simulation. The diffraction by finite crystals is shown to be equal to the incoherent average over a set of unit cells that contain different molecular arrangements related to the symmetry of the crystal at hand. The problem of image reconstruction under this circumstance is investigated. The more general problem of reconstructing multiple, unrelated, objects from their averaged diffraction is also explored and uniqueness properties along with reconstruction algorithms developed. The problem of reconstructing multiple, related, unit cells is studied and preliminary results are obtained. These results show that iterative phase retrieval algorithms can in principle be adapted to reconstruct the electron density of a crystalline specimen from the data obtained in SFX and the retrieval of phases from the diffracted intensity averaged over multiple objects is feasible.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been extensively utilized as a highly efficient and non-destructive testing method for infrastructure evaluation, such as highway rebar detection, bridge decks inspection, asphalt pavement monitoring, underground pipe leakage detection, railroad ballast assessment, etc. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate the key techniques to tackle with GPR signal processing from three perspectives: (1) Removing or suppressing the radar clutter signal; (2) Detecting the underground target or the region of interest (RoI) in the GPR image; (3) Imaging the underground target to eliminate or alleviate the feature distortion and reconstructing the shape of the target with good fidelity. In the first part of this dissertation, a low-rank and sparse representation based approach is designed to remove the clutter produced by rough ground surface reflection for impulse radar. In the second part, Hilbert Transform and 2-D Renyi entropy based statistical analysis is explored to improve RoI detection efficiency and to reduce the computational cost for more sophisticated data post-processing. In the third part, a back-projection imaging algorithm is designed for both ground-coupled and air-coupled multistatic GPR configurations. Since the refraction phenomenon at the air-ground interface is considered and the spatial offsets between the transceiver antennas are compensated in this algorithm, the data points collected by receiver antennas in time domain can be accurately mapped back to the spatial domain and the targets can be imaged in the scene space under testing. Experimental results validate that the proposed three-stage cascade signal processing methodologies can improve the performance of GPR system.

The ASCE confers an overall D+ grade to American infrastructure, while the NAE lists the restoration and improvement of urban infrastructure as one of its grand engineering challenges for the 21st century, indicating that infrastructure renovation and development is a major challenge in the US. Furthermore, according to the UN World Urbanization Prospects, about 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas and this percentage is set to grow, especially in Africa and Asia. The growth of urban population poses challenges to the expansion of underground infrastructure, such as water, sewage, electricity and telecommunications. Localization and mapping of underground infrastructure are fundamental for infrastructure maintenance and development. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a remote sensing method capable of detecting subsurface assets that has been used in the localization and mapping of underground utilities. This thesis contributes improvements of GPR systems and imaging algorithms towards smarter infrastructure, specifically: Application of GPR imaging algorithm to improve GPR data readability and generate augmented reality (AR) content; Use of photogrammetric methods to improve GPR positioning for underground infrastructure localization and mapping.

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been extensively utilized as a highly efficient and non-destructive testing method for infrastructure evaluation, such as highway rebar detection, bridge decks inspection, asphalt pavement monitoring, underground pipe leakage detection, railroad ballast assessment, etc. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate the key techniques to tackle with GPR signal processing from three perspectives: (1) Removing or suppressing the radar clutter signal; (2) Detecting the underground target or the region of interest (RoI) in the GPR image; (3) Imaging the underground target to eliminate or alleviate the feature distortion and reconstructing the shape of the target with good fidelity. In the first part of this dissertation, a low-rank and sparse representation based approach is designed to remove the clutter produced by rough ground surface reflection for impulse radar. In the second part, Hilbert Transform and 2-D Renyi entropy based statistical analysis is explored to improve RoI detection efficiency and to reduce the computational cost for more sophisticated data post-processing. In the third part, a back-projection imaging algorithm is designed for both ground-coupled and air-coupled multistatic GPR configurations. Since the refraction phenomenon at the air-ground interface is considered and the spatial offsets between the transceiver antennas are compensated in this algorithm, the data points collected by receiver antennas in time domain can be accurately mapped back to the spatial domain and the targets can be imaged in the scene space under testing. Experimental results validate that the proposed three-stage cascade signal processing methodologies can improve the performance of GPR system.

Hlavním cílem této práce je odhadnout výkonnost volně šířeni balík  Sémantický Vektory a třída MoreLikeThis z balíku Apache Lucene. Tato práce nabízí porovnání těchto dvou přístupů a zavádí metody, které mohou vést ke zlepšení kvality vyhledávání.

Adaptive filtering techniques are used in a wide range of applications, including echo cancellation, adaptive equalization, adaptive noise cancellation, and adaptive beamforming. The performance of an adaptive filtering algorithm is evaluated based on its convergence rate, misadjustment, computational requirements, and numerical robustness. We attempt to improve the performance by developing new adaptation algorithms and by using "unconventional" structures for adaptive filters. Part I of this dissertation presents a new adaptation algorithm, which we have termed the Normalized LMS algorithm with Orthogonal Correction Factors (NLMS-OCF). The NLMS-OCF algorithm updates the adaptive filter coefficients (weights) on the basis of multiple input signal vectors, while NLMS updates the weights on the basis of a single input vector. The well-known Affine Projection Algorithm (APA) is a special case of our NLMS-OCF algorithm. We derive convergence and tracking properties of NLMS-OCF using a simple model for the input vector. Our analysis shows that the convergence rate of NLMS-OCF (and also APA) is exponential and that it improves with an increase in the number of input signal vectors used for adaptation. While we show that, in theory, the misadjustment of the APA class is independent of the number of vectors used for adaptation, simulation results show a weak dependence. For white input the mean squared error drops by 20 dB in about 5N/(M+1) iterations, where N is the number of taps in the adaptive filter and (M+1) is the number of vectors used for adaptation. The dependence of the steady-state error and of the tracking properties on the three user-selectable parameters, namely step size, number of vectors used for adaptation (M+1), and input vector delay D used for adaptation, is discussed. While the lag error depends on all of the above parameters, the fluctuation error depends only on step size. Increasing D results in a linear increase in the lag error and hence the total steady-state mean-squared error. The optimum choices for step size and M are derived. Simulation results are provided to corroborate our analytical results. We also derive a fast version of our NLMS-OCF algorithm that has a complexity of O(NM). The fast version of the algorithm performs orthogonalization using a forward-backward prediction lattice. We demonstrate the advantages of using NLMS-OCF in a practical application, namely stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation. We find that NLMS-OCF can provide faster convergence, as well as better echo rejection, than the widely used APA. While the first part of this dissertation attempts to improve adaptive filter performance by refining the adaptation algorithm, the second part of this work looks at improving the convergence rate by using different structures. From an abstract viewpoint, the parameterization we decide to use has no special significance, other than serving as a vehicle to arrive at a good input-output description of the system. However, from a practical viewpoint, the parameterization decides how easy it is to numerically minimize the cost function that the adaptive filter is attempting to minimize. A balanced realization is known to minimize the parameter sensitivity as well as the condition number for Grammians. Furthermore, a balanced realization is useful in model order reduction. These properties of the balanced realization make it an attractive candidate as a structure for adaptive filtering. We propose an adaptive filtering algorithm based on balanced realizations. The third part of this dissertation proposes a unit-norm-constrained equation-error based adaptive IIR filtering algorithm. Minimizing the equation error subject to the unit-norm constraint yields an unbiased estimate for the parameters of a system, if the measurement noise is white. The proposed algorithm uses the hyper-spherical transformation to convert this constrained optimization problem into an unconstrained optimization problem. It is shown that the hyper-spherical transformation does not introduce any new minima in the equation error surface. Hence, simple gradient-based algorithms converge to the global minimum. Simulation results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides an unbiased estimate of the system parameters. / Ph. D.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an emerging technique in remote sensing. The technology is capable of producing high-resolution images of the earth surface in all-weather conditions. Thesis work describes the present available methods for positioning and imaging targets using M-sequence UWB (Ultra-Wideband) radar signals with moving antennas and SAR algorithm to retrieve position and image of the target. M-sequence UWB radar technology used as signal source for transmission and receiving echoes of target. Pseudo random binary sequence is used as a transmitted signal. These radars have an ability to penetrate signal through natural and unnatural objects. It offers low cost and quality security system. Among a number of techniques of image retrieval in Synthetic Aperture Radar, study of Global back projection (GBP) algorithm is presented. As a time domain algorithm, GBP possesses inherent advantages over frequency domain algorithm like ability to handle long integration angle, wider bandwidth and unlimited aperture size. GBP breaks the full synthesis aperture into numbers of sub-apertures. These sub-apertures are treated pixel by pixel. Each sub-aperture is converted to a Cartesian image grid to form an image.  During this conversion the signal is treated with linear interpolation methods in order to achieve the best quality of the images. The objective of this thesis is the imaging of target using M-sequence UWB radar and processing SAR raw data using Global back projection algorithm.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:21:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4180515 bytes, checksum: c6359ed912cde60c8848929b44dcca5c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Spectroscopy techniques combined with multivariate calibration have allowed the development of methods for analyte determinations (or other properties) in complex matrices. In this context, it can be mentioned the determinations that uses models based on PLS (Partial Least Square) regression, which is well established and consolidated in literature. Is spite of efficiency of PLS models obtained from full spectrum, some papers reported in literature show that a variable selection may improve the predictive ability of the PLS models. In the present work, it was developed an algorithm, in Matlab@, that employs the SPA (Successive Projection Algorithm), originally proposed for MLR (Multiple Linear Regression), in order to improve the predictive ability of interval PLS models. The proposed algorithm, termed iSPA-PLS, was evaluated in three case studies, namely: (i) simultaneous determination of three artificial colorants by UV-VIS spectrometry, (ii) quantification of protein contents in wheat using NIR spectrometry, and (iii) quality determination of samples of beer extract using NIR spectrometry too. The performance of iSPA-PLS was compared to the following well-established algorithms and methods: GA-PLS, PLS-Jack-Knife, iPLS e siPLS. In all applications, the results show that the iSPA-PLS presented some advantageous when compared to other algorithms used for comparison. The main advantageous include the smallest errors of prediction and the capacity of selecting a smaller number of PLS factors. / A combinação de técnicas espectroscópicas com calibração multivariada tem permitido o desenvolvimento de métodos para determinação de analitos (ou outras propriedades) em matrizes complexas. Nesse contexto, destacam-se as determinações usando modelos baseados na regressão PLS (Partial Least Square), bem difundida e consolidada na literatura. Apesar da eficácia dos modelos PLS obtidos a partir de espectros completos, alguns trabalhos da literatura têm mostrado que a seleção de variáveis pode melhorar a capacidade preditiva dos modelos PLS. No presente trabalho, desenvolve-se um algoritmo, em MatLab@, que utiliza o Algoritmo das Projeções Sucessivas-APS, proposto originalmente para MLR (Multiple Linear Regression), a fim de melhorar a capacidade preditiva de modelos PLS obtidos por intervalos. O algoritmo proposto, denominado Algoritmo das projeções sucessivas em intervalos para regressão PLS (iSPA-PLS), foi avaliado em três estudos de caso, a saber: (i) determinação simultânea de três corantes alimentícios em amostras sintéticas usando espectrometria UV-Vis, (ii) quantificação do teor de proteínas em trigo por espectrometria NIR e (iii) determinação da qualidade de amostras de extrato de cervejas usando também espectrometria NIR. O desempenho do iSPA-PLS foi comparado ao dos seguintes algoritmos e modelos bem estabelecidos na literatura: GA-PLS, PLS-Jack-Knife, iPLS e siPLS. Os resultados das três aplicações atestam as vantagens do iSPA-PLS frente aos demais algoritmos. Entre elas, destacam-se os menores erros de predição e a capacidade de selecionar um número menor de fatores PLS.

L’objectif de cette étude est de simuler l’érosion d’un sol cohésif sous l’effet d’un écoulement incompressible. Le modèle élaboré décrit une vitesse d’érosion interfaciale qui dépend de la contrainte de cisaillement de l’écoulement. La modélisation numérique proposée est une approche eulérienne, où une méthode de pénalisation de domaines est utilisée pour résoudre les équations de Navier-Stokes autour d’un obstacle. L’interface eau/sol est décrite par une fonction Level Set couplée à une loi d’érosion à seuil.L’approximation numérique est basée sur un schéma DDFV (Discrete Duality Finite Volume) autorisant des raffinements locaux sur maillages non-conformes et non-structurés. L’approche par pénalisation a mis en évidence une couche limite d'inconsistance à l'interface fluide/solide lors du calcul de la contrainte de cisaillement. Deux approches sont proposées pour estimer précisément la contrainte de ce problème à frontière libre. La pertinence du modèle à prédire l’érosion interfaciale du sol est confirmée par la présentation de plusieurs résultats de simulation, qui offrent une meilleure évaluation et compréhension des phénomènes d'érosion / This study focuses on the numerical modelling of the interfacial erosion occurring at a cohesive soil undergoing an incompressible flow process. The model assumes that the erosion velocity is driven by a fluid shear stress at the water/soil interface. The numerical modelling is based on the eulerian approach: a penalization procedure is used to compute Navier-Stokes equations around soil obstacle, with a fictitious domain method, in order to avoid body- fitted unstructured meshes. The water/soil interface’s evolution is described by a Level Set function coupled to a threshold erosion law.Because we use adaptive mesh refinement, we develop a Discrete Duality Finite Volume scheme (DDFV), which allows non-conforming and non-structured meshes. The penalization method, used to take into account a free velocity in the soil with non-body-fitted mesh, introduces an inaccurate shear stress at the interface. We propose two approaches to compute accurately the erosion velocity of this free boundary problem. The ability of the model to predict the interfacial erosion of soils is confirmed by presenting several simulations that provide better evaluation and comprehension of erosion phenomena.