Future missions to Mars will place heavy emphasis on scientific sample and return operations, which will require a rover to revisit sites of interest. Visual Teach and Repeat (VT&R) has proven to be an effective method to enable autonomous repeating of any previously driven route without a global positioning system. However, one of the major challenges in recognizing previously visited locations is lighting change, as this can drastically change the appearance of the scene. In an effort to achieve lighting invariance, this thesis details the design of a VT&R system that uses a laser scanner as the primary sensor. The key novelty is to apply appearance-based vision techniques traditionally used with camera systems to laser intensity images for motion estimation. Field tests were conducted in an outdoor environment over an entire diurnal cycle, covering more than 11km with an autonomy rate of 99.7% by distance.

Future missions to Mars will place heavy emphasis on scientific sample and return operations, which will require a rover to revisit sites of interest. Visual Teach and Repeat (VT&R) has proven to be an effective method to enable autonomous repeating of any previously driven route without a global positioning system. However, one of the major challenges in recognizing previously visited locations is lighting change, as this can drastically change the appearance of the scene. In an effort to achieve lighting invariance, this thesis details the design of a VT&R system that uses a laser scanner as the primary sensor. The key novelty is to apply appearance-based vision techniques traditionally used with camera systems to laser intensity images for motion estimation. Field tests were conducted in an outdoor environment over an entire diurnal cycle, covering more than 11km with an autonomy rate of 99.7% by distance.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-120).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / Vita. Appendix: leaves 192-193. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-213).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2006. / Vita. Appendix: leaves 192-193. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-213).

Generation by generation, wireless communication has advanced in various ways and provided reliable communication services at higher and higher data rates to the needs of more and more advanced wireless applications. Two main issues towards future wireless communications are high-speed transmission technique to provide high data rate services and reliable communication to ensure the required performance. This dissertation focuses on these two issues. Since orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has emerged as an enabling technique for high-speed transmission in dispersive environments, major and fundamental issues in OFDM, namely, synchronization, channel estimation, and peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction are addressed. For the required reliability, automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes must be applied. Due to large potential performance improvement, adaptive ARQ schemes have recently attracted much attention and are also addressed here. We propose two improved OFDM timing synchronization methods which overcome the drawbacks of existing methods. We present a time-domain-based OFDM channel estimation which outperforms the existing time-domain-based approach and has a similar performance to the linear minimum mean square error estimator but with less complexity. For OFDM systems with transmit diversity, we present a reduced complexity channel estimation which has a comparable performance to the existing method for channels with relatively small delay spreads, but achieves much complexity saving. An approach to find the number of most significant channel taps is described for diverse channel environments. We analyze the effect of non-sample-spaced channel path on the channel estimation and propose a modification for further improvement. Timing synchronization, frequency synchronization and channel estimation are usually addressed separately. Since they can affect each other, the idea of jointly addressing all of them together is much desirable and pursued here. This joint approach reflects the actual performance and gives an opportunity to exploit some information obtained from one task in another, hence promising more improvement. The proposed training preamble-based joint timing and frequency synchronization utilizes some information from the channel estimation. The sync detection is also considered. We design the training symbol to achieve a better coarse timing synchronization. Methods to suppress or circumvent the interference in the frequency estimation caused by timing errors are presented. A new performance measure for OFDM timing synchronization is proposed which leads to obtaining optimal timing estimation setting. Next, we present a joint timing synchronization, frequency synchronization and channel estimation based on training preamble based maximum likelihood realization. Further complexity reduction by an adaptive scheme is also proposed. We address some fundamental questions on peak factors, sampling theorem and sampling series. We present several bounds of bandlimited functions and peak factor ratio bound of a continuous signal and its sampled signal. Some discussion on the requirements of sampling theorems and related aspects on sampling series are presented. We study PAPR behavior of some Reed-Muller codes in OFDM systems in an attempt to find a code with good error correction, low PAPR, efficient encoding/decoding and reasonable code rate. Some regularities of the second and third-order cosets of first order Reed-Muller codes with low PAPR are presented which indicates possibility of finding such code for OFDM. The main issues in adaptive ARQ schemes are how to design the adaptive system parameters and how to effectively sense the channel conditions. We present an approach for designing the adaptive ARQ system parameters based on the through put calculation and optimization. An alternative approach which avoids the tedious throughput calculation is also presented. An effective channel sensing algorithm which utilizes the error correcting capability is proposed. Incorporation of the adaptive frequency hopping concept into the ARQ scheme with adaptive error control is introduced which has a significant throughput improvement in slow fading channels. / Graduate

abstract: Vertebrate genomes demonstrate a remarkable range of sizes from 0.3 to 133 gigabase pairs. The proliferation of repeat elements are a major genomic expansion. In particular, long interspersed nuclear elements (LINES) are autonomous retrotransposons that have the ability to "cut and paste" themselves into a host genome through a mechanism called target-primed reverse transcription. LINES have been called "junk DNA," "viral DNA," and "selfish" DNA, and were once thought to be parasitic elements. However, LINES, which diversified before the emergence of many early vertebrates, has strongly shaped the evolution of eukaryotic genomes. This thesis will evaluate LINE abundance, diversity and activity in four anole lizards. An intrageneric analysis will be conducted using comparative phylogenetics and bioinformatics. Comparisons within the Anolis genus, which derives from a single lineage of an adaptive radiation, will be conducted to explore the relationship between LINE retrotransposon activity and causal changes in genomic size and composition. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Biology 2013

Repeat photography, the process of retaking an existing photograph from the same vantage point, can give insight into long-term land cover dynamics. I advance the use of repeat photography to quantify landscape change in two ways: first, I demonstrate that rigorous field and post-processing methods can lead to highly accurate co-registration of images; second, I show that oblique photographs can provide land cover composition information similar to conventional satellite (Landsat) imagery for dominant land cover types, and that oblique photographs are better at resolving narrow or steep landscape features. I then present a novel approach to evaluate long-term biodiversity change using repeat photography: I measure land cover composition in 46 historical and modern photograph pairs in the Willmore Wilderness Park, Alberta, Canada, and use that land cover information as input into species-habitat models to predict the probability of occurrence of 15 songbird species. I show that coniferous forest cover increased over the past century, leading to a homogenization of the landscape which increased the probability of occurrence of forest-adapted species but negatively impacted non-forest-adapted species. / Graduate / 2019-04-18

Abstract Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of mental retardation syndrome, is caused by an expansion of the CGG trinucleotide repeat in the 5' UTR of the FMR1 gene, with concurrent hypermethylation of the region, which represses FMR1 expression. The syndrome is associated with the folate-sensitive chromosomal fragile site at Xq27.3 (FRAXA), where the gene responsible for the syndrome was first localized by linkage analysis using RFLP markers. In this study the linkage relationships of the RFLP markersat Xq27-28 and the characteristics of the CGG repeat expansion were investigated in northern Finnish fragile X families and molecular diagnostic methods were applied in order to improve diagnosis of the syndrome. Furthermore, the origin of fragile X mutations in the northern part of Finland was studied by haplotype analysis. Linkage studies were performed in 34 northern Finnish fragile X families/pedigrees using a total of 15 RFLPs (defining 11 loci). A refined genetic map around FRAXA including five RFLP markers having recombination fractions of 0.04 or less with FRAXA was obtained in an international study of 112 affected families, containing linkage data on twelve northern Finnish families. Linkage analysis significantly improved carrier detection in fragile X families compared with previous cytogenetic methods used in diagnosis. The most efficient RFLP-based protocol for carrier detection was proposed, which is based on use of the most adjacent markers and a minimum number of restriction enzymes. CGG repeat expansion of the FMR1 gene was investigated in original families collected for linkage studies and additional new ones. Large CGG repeat expansions (Δ > 500 bp) with concomitant methylation of the adjacent CpG island, i.e. full mutations, were found to be associated with mental retardation completely in males, but only 50% of the females having a full mutation were mentally impaired. Premutations (Δ < 700 bp) were found in healthy carriers. There was a size range of Δ = 500 to 700 bp, where the expansions could be either abnormally methylated or non-methylated, and it appeared that methylation is more important in determining the phenotype than the exact size of an expansion. Instability of the enlarged CGG repeats was detected, leading preferentially to size increases in successive generations. The instability of premutations was found to be stronger and the size increases larger in maternal than in paternal transmissions, and transition to a full mutation occurred only in female transmissions. In addition, the size of a maternal premutation was shown to have an important influence on the risk of its transition to a full mutation when transmitted. The critical premutation size leading invariably to full mutation in the offspring was found to be between Δ = 175 to 200 bp. In one of the studied families a rare contraction of a paternal premutation to a normal CGG repeat number in one of the daughters and further in her son was detected. Direct mutation analysis including measurement of the CGG repeat size and hypermethylation allowed unambiguous diagnosis of carriers and affected individuals in most cases. Haplotype analysis using two tightly linked microsatellite markers flanking the CGG repeat mutation was performed in 60 unrelated northern and eastern Finnish fragile X families. A significant difference was found in allelic and haplotypic distributions between normal X and fragile X chromosomes. A single haplotype, which was present only in 8% of the normal X chromosomes, accounted for 80% of the fragile X chromosomes. This enrichment of one fra(X) mutation in the Finnish population suggests founder effect.

Final publication is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nmd.2016.03.001 / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第19928号 / 医博第4148号 / 新制||医||1017(附属図書館) / 33014 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 萩原 正敏, 教授 羽賀 博典, 教授 松田 秀一 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM