Growth release of trees following canopy disturbances is of interest to ecological scientists and forest managers. Using dendroecological techniques, I examined growth release of canopy and subcanopy trees following the formation of natural, fine-scale canopy gaps in old-growth, western red cedar-western hemlock forests of coastal British Columbia. I aimed to quantify detailed information on release of the three shade-tolerant tree species that constitute these stands: western red cedar (Thuja plicata), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), and Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis). As a first step, I calibrated the radial-growth averaging method to account for regional-scale variability and capture a more complete range of growth releases that may occur following the formation of fine-scale gaps in the study stands. A 25% threshold, 5-year moving average, and 10-year window emerged as appropriate parameters for detecting releases using radial-growth averaging. Basal area increment was also the most appropriate growth index for detecting releases. Establishing these empirically-based criteria was important for quantifying the magnitude and duration of releases. Tree diameter and growth rate prior to release were the most important predictors of the magnitude and duration of releases, but identity of the tree species and distance from the gap center were also important predictors. Western hemlock and Pacific silver fir were often growing slowly both in the canopy and subcanopy, giving them tremendous potential to release. For these species, releases were generally intensive and persistent. In contrast, western red cedar were often growing quickly both in the canopy and subcanopy, giving them less potential to release. Compared to western hemlock and Pacific silver fir, western red cedar releases were less intensive and persistent. Patterns related to distance from the gap center emerged for trees growing along the north-south axis of gaps. Regardless of species, increasing distance from the gap center resulted in decreasing magnitude and duration of releases. However, patterns for duration were complex, as the distance effect was greater for trees north of the gap center. Information on growth release of trees is useful for reconstructing the history of past canopy disturbances, elucidating mechanisms of tree species coexistence, and assessing and predicting stand changes due to forest management in coastal British Columbia.

En Argentina, la madera de salicáceas (álamos y sauces) es utilizada en diversos usos industriales como madera aserrada, envases y tableros, pero principalmente en la fabricación de pulpa para papel de diario. El rápido crecimiento de las salicáceas produce árboles que alcanzan un tamaño comercial a edades muy tempranas con turnos de aprovechamiento de 10 a12 años. Esta disminución en la edad de rotación incrementa la proporción de leño juvenil, aunque esta proporción no está cuantificada en las plantaciones comerciales de álamo y sauce en Argentina. El leño juvenil fue definido para las coníferas como la zona más cercana al centro del árbol, que se extiende desde la base hasta el tope. Esta definición se aplica con algunas variaciones a las angiospermas. La literatura indica que la madera juvenil está asociada a una edad fisiológica temprana de las células cambiales y presenta menor densidad, elementos fibrosos más cortos y propiedades de resistencia menores, en comparación con la madera madura. El objetivo de esta tesis fue determinar los patrones de variación axial y radial de densidad básica, morfometría de fibras y vasos y composición química, de árboles provenientes de plantaciones comerciales de Populus deltoides 'Australia 129-60' y Salix babylonica var sacramenta. Asimismo, y en base a lo anterior, definir la edad de formación de madera juvenil y madura y determinar la incidencia de la presencia de estos tipos de leño sobre la calidad de las pulpas quimimecánicas destinadas a la elaboración de papel de diario. Se trabajó con 5 árboles de Salix babylonica var sacramenta “sauce americano” extraídos de una plantación de Papel Prensa S.A., Establecimiento “Las Animas”, Villa Paranacito, Entre Ríos (33° 45´ LS; 59° 05’ W) y 5 árboles de Populus deltoides `Australia 129-60` “álamo australiano” correspondientes a plantaciones para debobinado en la Zona del Delta Bonaerense. La edad de los ejemplares de Populus muestreados fue de 17 años y en el caso de Salix, de 45 años. Se midió altura total, diámetro a la altura de pecho (DAP) con corteza y sin corteza en los árboles seleccionados. Se extrajo un disco completo de 5 cm de espesor en 5 alturas en el fuste y se midieron anualmente o cada 5 años las siguientes variables: ancho de anillos de crecimiento, densidad básica, morfometría de fibras y vasos (longitud, ancho, lumen y espesor de la pared de las fibras), composición química (extractivos en agua caliente, extractivos en alcohol benceno, lignina insoluble, lignina soluble, lignina total, celulosa y hemicelulosas). Los resultados se expresan como: modelos de variación de las propiedades de la madera, identificación y determinación de la edad de transición entre madera juvenil y madura y calidad de la pulpa quimimecánica. Inicialmente se construyeron modelos de variación axial y radial de las propiedades anatómicas, químicas y de densidad de la madera para ambas especies. El sauce americano y el álamo australiano presentaron una tendencia de variación radial que consiste en un aumento de sus valores de médula a corteza en la mayoría de sus propiedades, con excepción del contenido de hemicelulosas en álamo y contenido de celulosa y espesor de pared en sauce, que presentan una disminución de sus valores con la edad. Las variaciones de las propiedades en sentido axial no son tan uniformes como las radiales. Las principales diferencias se producen entre la base y la primera troza comercial (altura del pecho) en ambas especies. Algunas propiedades presentan una disminución de sus valores dentro de la primera troza, mientras que otras aumentan. En el resto del fuste las propiedades no presentan variación significativa o se mantienen constantes. Teniendo en cuenta los patrones de variación de las propiedades anatómicas y de la densidad, se realizó la determinación de la edad de transición entre madera juvenil y madura por medio del método de regresiones segmentadas. En el álamo australiano, la edad estimada de transición entre madera juvenil y madura no fue idéntica para todas las propiedades. Se obtuvieron edades de 4, 5, 7 y 9 años dependiendo de la variable (vasos, fibras o densidad). En sauce americano, dependiendo de la variable analizada (vasos, fibras o densidad) la edad de transición entre madera juvenil y madura presentó diferentes valores entre los rangos de 5 a 10 y 10 a 15 años. Se evaluaron las propiedades de resistencia y ópticas de 5 pulpas CMP obtenidas como mezclas en diferente proporción de madera juvenil (MJ) y madera madura (MM) en álamo y sauce. El comportamiento de ambos clones fue similar. Las propiedades de resistencia aumentaron con una mayor proporción de MJ en la mezcla. Los mejores valores de tracción y rasgado se obtuvieron con 100% y 75% de MJ en la mezcla respectivamente. Las propiedades ópticas, en cambio, presentaron el comportamiento inverso, obteniéndose los mejores valores de opacidad y blancura a medida que aumenta la proporción de MM. Como conclusión, en esta tesis se identificaron patrones generales de variación de densidad y propiedades anatómicas y químicas, que permitieron determinar la edad de transición de madera juvenil a madera madura para un clon de álamo y uno de sauce de interés comercial. Para turnos de rotación cortos (10 años), usuales en la industria de pulpas celulósicas en Argentina, la proporción de madera juvenil sería del 82% del área basal. Para la industria de aserrado y debobinado, donde se utilizan rotaciones de 17 años o más, la proporción de madera madura sería de 74%. La densidad y algunos parámetros anatómicos y químicos de la madera juvenil mostraron magnitudes inferiores con respecto a la madera madura, sin embargo, las propiedades mecánicas de las pulpas quimimecánicas elaboradas con mayor proporción de madera juvenil fueron superiores en todos los casos.

Stainless steels are very important engineering materials in a variety of applications such as in the food industry and nuclear power plants due to their combination of good mechanical properties and high corrosion resistance. However, ferrite-containing stainless steels are sensitive to the so-called ‘475°C embrittlement’, which is induced by phase separation of the ferrite phase, where it decomposes into Fe-rich ferrite (α) and Cr-rich ferrite (α'). The phase separation is accompanied with a severe loss of toughness. Therefore, the upper service temperature of ferrite-containing stainless steels in industrial applications has been limited to around 250°. In the present work, Fe-Cr based steels were mainly investigated by atom probe tomography. A new method based on the radial distribution function (RDF) was proposed to quantitatively evaluate both the wavelength and amplitude of phase separation in Fe-Cr alloys from the atom probe tomography data. Moreover, a simplified equation was derived to calculate the amplitude of phase separation. The wavelength and amplitude was compared with evaluations using the auto-correlation function (ACF) and Langer-Bar-on-Miller (LBM) method, respectively. The results show that the commonly used LBM method underestimates the amplitude of phase separation and the wavelengths obtained by RDF shows a good exponential relation with aging time which is expected from the theory. The RDF is also an effective method in detecting the phenomena of clustering and elemental partitioning. Furthermore, atom probe tomography and the developed quantitative analysis method have been applied to investigate the influence of different factors on the phase separation in Fe-Cr based alloys by the help of mainly mechanical property tests and atom probe tomography analysis. The study shows that: (1) the external tensile stress during aging enhances the phase separation in ferrite. (2) Phase separation in weld bead metals decomposes more rapidly than both the heat-affected-zone metals and the base metals mainly due to the high density of dislocations in the welding bead metals which could facilitate the diffusion. (3) The results show that Ni and Mn can enhance the phase separation comparing to the binary Fe-Cr alloy whereas Cu forms clusters during aging. (4) Initial clustering of Cr atoms was found after homogenization. Two factors, namely, clustering of Cr above the miscibility gap and clustering during quenching was suggested as the two responsible mechanisms. (5) The homogenization temperatures significantly influence the evolution of phase separation in Fe-46.5at.%Cr. / <p>QC 20140910</p> / Spinodal Project

The present thesis is devoted to the investigation of certain aspects of the large time behavior of the solutions of two nonlinear Schrödinger equations in dimension three in some suitable perturbative regimes. The first model consist in a Schrödinger equation with a concentrated nonlinearity obtained considering a {point} (or contact) interaction with strength $alpha$, which consists of a singular perturbation of the Laplacian described by a self adjoint operator $H_{alpha}$, and letting the strength $alpha$ depend on the wave function: $ifrac{du}{dt}= H_alpha u$, $alpha=alpha(u)$.It is well-known that the elements of the domain of a point interaction in three dimensions can be written as the sum of a regular function and a function that exhibits a singularity proportional to $|x - x_0|^{-1}$, where $x_0$is the location of the point interaction. If $q$ is the so-called charge of the domain element $u$, i.e. the coefficient of itssingular part, then, in order to introduce a nonlinearity, we let the strength $alpha$ depend on $u$ according to the law $alpha=-nu|q|^sigma$, with $nu > 0$. This characterizes the model as a focusing NLS with concentrated nonlinearity of power type. In particular, we study orbital and asymptotic stability of standing waves for such a model. We prove the existence of standing waves of the form $u (t)=e^{iomega t}Phi_{omega}$, which are orbitally stable in the range $sigma in (0,1)$, and orbitally unstable for $sigma geq 1.$ Moreover, we show that for $sigma in(0,frac{1}{sqrt 2}) cup left(frac{1}{sqrt{2}}, frac{sqrt{3} +1}{2sqrt{2}} right)$ every standing wave is asymptotically stable, in the following sense. Choosing an initial data close to the stationary state in the energy norm, and belonging to a natural weighted $L^p$ space which allows dispersive stimates, the following resolution holds: $u(t) =e^{iomega_{infty} t +il(t)} Phi_{omega_{infty}}+U_t*psi_{infty} +r_{infty}$, where $U_t$ is the free Schrödinger propagator,$omega_{infty} > 0$ and $psi_{infty}$, $r_{infty} inL^2(R^3)$ with $| r_{infty} |_{L^2} = O(t^{-p}) quadtextrm{as} ;; t right arrow +infty$, $p = frac{5}{4}$,$frac{1}{4}$ depending on $sigma in (0, 1/sqrt{2})$, $sigma in (1/sqrt{2}, 1)$, respectively, and finally $l(t)$ is a logarithmic increasing function that appears when $sigma in (frac{1}{sqrt{2}},sigma^*)$, for a certain $sigma^* in left(frac{1}{sqrt{2}}, frac{sqrt{3} +1}{2sqrt{2}} right]$. Notice that in the present model the admitted nonlinearities for which asymptotic stability of solitons is proved, are subcritical in the sense that it does not give rise to blow up, regardless of the chosen initial data. The second model is the energy critical focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation $i frac{du}{dt}=-Delta u-|u|^4 u$. In this case we prove, for any $nu$ and $alpha_0$ sufficiently small, the existence of radial finite energy solutions of the form$u(t,x)=e^{ialpha(t)}lambda^{1/2}(t)W(lambda(t)x)+e^{iDeltat}zeta^*+o_{dot H^1} (1)$ as $tright arrow +infty$, where$alpha(t)=alpha_0ln t$, $lambda(t)=t^{nu}$,$W(x)=(1+frac13|x|^2)^{-1/2}$ is the ground state and $zeta^*$is arbitrarily small in $dot H^1$

The High Pressure Test Unit (HPTU) forms part of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Heat Transfer Test Facility (HTTF). One of the test sections that forms part of the HPTU is the Braiding Effect Test Section (BETS). This test section allows for the evaluation of the so–called ‘braiding effect’ that occurs in fluid flow through a packed pebble bed. The braiding effect implies an apparent enhancement of the fluid thermal conductivity due to turbulent mixing that occurs as the flow criss–crosses between the pebbles. The level of enhancement of the fluid thermal conductivity is evaluated from the thermal dispersion effect. The so–called thermal dispersion quantity r K is equivalent to an effective Peclet number eff Pe based on the inverse of the effective thermal conductivity eff k . This thesis describes the experiments carried out on three different BETS test sections with pseudo–homogeneous porosities of 0.36, 0.39 and 0.45, respectively. It also provides the values derived for the enhanced fluid thermal conductivity for the range of Reynolds numbers between 1,000 and 40,000. The study includes the following: * Compilation of a literature study and theoretical background. * An uncertainty analysis to estimate the impact of instrument uncertainties on the accuracy of the empirical data. * The use of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the heat transfer through the BETS packed pebble bed.* Application of the CFD model combined with a numerical search technique to extract the effective fluid thermal conductivity values from the measured results. * The assessment of the results of the experiments by comparing it with the results of other investigations found in the open literature. The primary outputs of the study are the effective fluid thermal conductivity values derived from the measured data on the HPTU plant. The primary variables that were measured are the temperatures at radial positions at different axial depths inside the bed and the total mass flow rate through the test section. The maximum and minimum standard uncertainties for the measured data are 10.80% and 0.06% respectively. The overall effective thermal conductivities that were calculated at the minimum and maximum Reynolds numbers were in the order of 1.166 W/mK and 38.015 W/mK respectively. A sensitivity study was conducted on the experimental data and the CFD data. A maximum uncertainty of 5.92 % was found in the calculated effective thermal conductivities. The results show that relatively high values of thermal dispersion quantities or effective Peclet numbers are obtained for the pseudo–homogeneous packed beds when compared to randomly packed beds. Therefore, the effective thermal conductivity is low and it can be concluded that the radial mixing in the structured packing is low relative to the mixing obtained in randomly packed beds. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The High Pressure Test Unit (HPTU) forms part of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Heat Transfer Test Facility (HTTF). One of the test sections that forms part of the HPTU is the Braiding Effect Test Section (BETS). This test section allows for the evaluation of the so–called ‘braiding effect’ that occurs in fluid flow through a packed pebble bed. The braiding effect implies an apparent enhancement of the fluid thermal conductivity due to turbulent mixing that occurs as the flow criss–crosses between the pebbles. The level of enhancement of the fluid thermal conductivity is evaluated from the thermal dispersion effect. The so–called thermal dispersion quantity r K is equivalent to an effective Peclet number eff Pe based on the inverse of the effective thermal conductivity eff k . This thesis describes the experiments carried out on three different BETS test sections with pseudo–homogeneous porosities of 0.36, 0.39 and 0.45, respectively. It also provides the values derived for the enhanced fluid thermal conductivity for the range of Reynolds numbers between 1,000 and 40,000. The study includes the following: * Compilation of a literature study and theoretical background. * An uncertainty analysis to estimate the impact of instrument uncertainties on the accuracy of the empirical data. * The use of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the heat transfer through the BETS packed pebble bed.* Application of the CFD model combined with a numerical search technique to extract the effective fluid thermal conductivity values from the measured results. * The assessment of the results of the experiments by comparing it with the results of other investigations found in the open literature. The primary outputs of the study are the effective fluid thermal conductivity values derived from the measured data on the HPTU plant. The primary variables that were measured are the temperatures at radial positions at different axial depths inside the bed and the total mass flow rate through the test section. The maximum and minimum standard uncertainties for the measured data are 10.80% and 0.06% respectively. The overall effective thermal conductivities that were calculated at the minimum and maximum Reynolds numbers were in the order of 1.166 W/mK and 38.015 W/mK respectively. A sensitivity study was conducted on the experimental data and the CFD data. A maximum uncertainty of 5.92 % was found in the calculated effective thermal conductivities. The results show that relatively high values of thermal dispersion quantities or effective Peclet numbers are obtained for the pseudo–homogeneous packed beds when compared to randomly packed beds. Therefore, the effective thermal conductivity is low and it can be concluded that the radial mixing in the structured packing is low relative to the mixing obtained in randomly packed beds. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The user of an image database often wishes to retrieve all images similar to the one (s)he already has. In this thesis, shape analysis methods for retrieving shape are investigated. Shape analysis methods can be classified in two groups as contour-based and region-based according to the shape information used. In such a classification, curvature scale space (CSS) representation and angular radial transform (ART) are promising methods for shape similarity retrieval respectively. The CSS representation operates by decomposing the shape contour into convex and concave sections. CSS descriptor is extracted by using the curvature zero-crossings behaviour of the shape boundary while smoothing the boundary with Gaussian filter. The ART descriptor decomposes the shape region into a number of orthogonal 2-D basis functions defined on a unit disk. ART descriptor is extracted using the magnitudes of ART coefficients. These methods are implemented for similarity comparison of binary images and the retrieval performances of descriptors for changing number of sampling points of boundary and order of ART coefficients are investigated. The experiments are done using 1000 images from MPEG7 Core Experiments Shape-1. Results show that for different classes of shape, different descriptors are more successful. When the choice of approach depends on the properties of the query shape, similarity retrieval performance increases.

No description available.

Towards advancing the indices of hurricane energetics that are associated with potential damage, we develop a new methodology for calculating integrated kinetic energy (IKE) climatology. A simple, observation and dynamical - based radial wind speed model is used with the Extended Best Track Data Set to calculate IKE for North Atlantic Hurricanes from 1988 to 2008. The method is evaluated against previous methods of tropical cyclone intensity analysis, and the results are compared to traditional indices in terms of characterizing storm energetics and relating to storm surge. It is shown that the traditional indices are inaccurate measurements of hurricane energetics, and the assumptions that they are based on are not valid. Furthermore, in analyzing storm surge, it is possible that tropical cyclone damage is more strongly correlated with IKE rather than maximum wind speed.

Background：Aortic stenosis (AS) is the commonest valve disease in the West. Aortic valve replacement (AVR) remains the only available management for AS and results in improved symptoms and recovery of ventricular functions. In addition, it is well known that AVR results in disruption of LV function mainly in the form of reversal of septal motion as well as depression of right ventricular (RV) systolic function. The aim of this thesis was to study, in detail, the early and mid-term response of ventricular function to AVR procedures (surgical and TAVI) as well as post operative patients’ exercise capacity. Methods：We studied LV and RV function by Doppler echocardiography and speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) in the following 4 groups; (1) 30 severe AS patients (age 62±11 years, 19 male) with normal LV ejection fraction (EF) who underwent AVR, (2) 20 severe AS patients (age 79±6 years, 14 male) who underwent TAVI, (3) 30 healthy controls (age 63±11 years, 16 male), (4) 21 healthy controls (age 57±9 years, 14 male) who underwent exercise echocardiography. Results: After one week of TAVI, the septal radial motion and RV tricuspid annulus peak systolic excursion (TAPSE) were not different from before, while surgical AVR had significantly reversed septal radial motion and TAPSE dropped by 70% compared to before. The extent of the reversed septal motion correlated with that of TAPSE (r=0.78, p&lt;0.001) in the patients as a whole after AVR and TAVI (Study I). Compared with controls, the LV twist function was increased in AS patients before and normalized after 6 months of surgical AVR. In controls, the LV twist correlated with LV fractional shortening (r=0.81, p&lt;0.001), a relationship which became weak in patients before (r=0.52, p&lt;0.01) and after AVR (r=0.34, p=ns) (Study II). After 6 months of surgical AVR, the reversed septal radial motion was still significantly lower than before. The septal peak displacement also decreased and its time became prolonged. In contrast, the LV lateral wall peak displacement increased and the time to peak displacement was early. The accentuated lateral wall peak displacement correlated with the septal peak displacement time delay (r=0.60, p&lt;0.001) and septal-lateral time delay (r=0.64, p&lt;0.001) (Study III). In 21 surgical AVR patients who performed exercise echocardiography, the LV function was normal at rest but different from controls with exercise. At peak exercise, oxygen consumption (pVO2) was lower in patients than controls. Although patients could achieve cardiac output (CO) and heart rate (HR) similar to controls at peak exercise, the LV systolic and early diastolic myocardial velocities and strain rate as well as their delta changes were significantly lower than controls. pVO2 correlated with peak exercise LV myocardial function in the patients group only, and the systolic global longitudinal strain rate (GLSRs) at peak exercise was the only independent predictor of pVO2 in multivariate regression analysis (p=0.03) (Study IV). Conclusion: Surgical AVR is an effective treatment for AS patients, but results in reversed septal radial motion and reduced TAPSE. The newly developed TAVI procedure maintains RV function which results in preservation of septal radial motion. In AS, the LV twist function is exaggerated, normalizes after AVR but loses its relationship with basal LV function. While the reversed septal motion results in decreased and delayed septal longitudinal displacement which is compensated for by the accentuated lateral wall displacement and the time early. These patients remain suffering from limited exercise capacity years after AVR.