This work presents a novel technique for data compression based on multi-residue number systems. The basic theorem is that an under-determined system of congruences could be solved to accomplish data compression for a signal satisfying continuity of its information content and bounded in peak-to -peak amplitude by the product of relatively prime moduli,. This thesis investigates this property and presents quantitative results along with MATLAB codes. Chapter 1 is introductory in nature and Chapter 2 deals in more detail with the basic theorem. Chapter 3 explicitly mentions the assumptions made and chapter 4 shows alternative solutions to the Chinese remainder theorem. Chapter 5 explains the experiments in detail whose results are mentioned in chapter 6. Chapter 7 concludes with a summary and suggestions for future work.

Tillage practices have changed dramatically during the past several decades as agricultural specialists have recognized the unfavorable environmental effects of mechanized tillage. Alternatively, conservation tillage management can mitigate adverse environmental impacts of tillage, such as soil and water degradation. Adoption of conservation tillage has continued to increase since its first introduction, which raises questions of when and where it is practiced. Spatial and temporal specifics of tillage practices form important dimensions for development of effective crop management practices and policies.  Because Landsat has been and will continue to image the Earth globally, it provides opportunities for systematic mapping of crop residue cover (CRC) /tillage practices. Thus, the overall objective of this study is to develop methodologies to improve our ability to monitor crop management across different landscapes in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner using Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery, which is addressed in three separate studies. The first study found that previous efforts to estimate CRC along a continuum using Landsat-based tillage indices were unsuccessful because they neglected the key temporal changes in agricultural surfaces caused by tilling, planting, and crop emergence at the start of the growing season. The first study addressed this difficulty by extracting minimum values of multi-temporal NDTI (Normalized Difference Tillage Index) spectral profiles, designated here as the minNDTI method. The minNDTI improves crop residue estimation along a continuum (R2 = 0.87) as well as tillage classification accuracy (overall accuracy > 90%).   A second study evaluated effectiveness of the minNDTI approach for assessing CRC at multiple locations over several years, and compared minNDTI to hyperspectral tillage index (CAI), and the ASTER tillage index (SINDRI). The minNDTI is effective across four different locations (R2 of 0.56 ~ 0.93). The third study, built upon the second study, addressed the Landsat ETM+ missing data issue, and devised methodologies for producing field-level tillage data at broad scales (multiple counties).  In summary, this research demonstrates that the minNDTI technique is currently the best alternative for monitoring CRC and tillage practices from space, and provides a foundation for monitoring crop residue cover at broad spatial and temporal scales. / Ph. D.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第20769号 / 農博第2252号 / 新制||農||1054(附属図書館) / 学位論文||H29||N5089(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 舟川 晋也, 教授 間藤 徹, 教授 縄田 栄治 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The amount of available biomass feedstock and associated cost components were analyzed to determine the potential increase in energy capacity of two existing combined heat and power plants in Mississippi. The amount of corn stover and forest logging residue within a 10-mile radius can satisfy the existing requirements of CHP plants in Scott (1 MW) and Washington counties (5 MW). Transporting feedstock within a smaller source area had lower transportation costs, but higher total unit cost than the two other source buffer scenarios. However, capital costs associated with higher plant capacities were significantly higher and plant expansion may not be economically advantageous. Increasing the CHP capacity from 1 MW to 2 MW in Scott county and 5 MW to 10 MW in Washington county might be a sustainable approach by drawing feedstock from a smaller area and at lower utilization rates, while keeping transportation costs low.

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[pt] Esta tese apresenta um novo modelo para a avaliação de recalques em aterros de disposição de resíduos sólidos urbanos. Trata-se de um modelo unidimensional, onde os recalques resultam da ação de duas componentes, uma mecânica e outra biológica, que permite a avaliação da evolução das variações de volume do aterro com o tempo. A componente mecânica é caracterizada por um recalque imediato, causado pela redução da macroporosidade e pela drenagem de líquidos e gases presentes na massa de resíduos no instante da disposição devido à ação das cargas aplicadas, e por uma componente de longo prazo, originada pela deformação lenta da estrutura dos resíduos. A componente biológica é resultado dos processos de decomposição que ocorrem no interior dos aterros, onde a contínua transferência de massa da fase sólida para as fases líquida e, principalmente, gasosa, causa uma redução de volume dos resíduos. Por hipótese, os parâmetros utilizados na avaliação das duas componentes não variam com tempo. O comportamento dos resíduos é analisado a partir de propriedades de suas frações constituintes, possibilitando, desta forma, a análise de situações onde ocorram variações da composição e das condições operacionais. O modelo também permite a análise de aterros com construção em etapas e realização de ensaios de carregamento. Diversos casos históricos, coletados na literatura, foram simulados. Os resultados obtidos com o modelo mostraram-se bastante semelhantes aos de campo, indicando ser válido o conjunto de hipóteses adotadas. Na análise desses casos constatou-se uma falta de padronização na apresentação ou mesmo inexistência das informações necessárias às simulações com o modelo, tornando-se indispensável a adoção de hipóteses, sendo estas fundamentadas em aspectos físicos e observacionais. O modelo mostrou-se bastante versátil, podendo ser adaptado facilmente a novos problemas, incluindo a variação dos parâmetros com o tempo. / [en] This thesis presents a new model to evaluate settlements in municipal solid waste fills. It refers to a one dimensional model in which the settlements result from two components, one due to mechanical behavior and the other from biological degradation. The mechanical component is formed by an immediate settlement, in which the load application results in a reduction of the macroporosity and drainage of liquids and gases, and by a long term settlement, associated with waste structure creep. The biological component is a result of the decomposition processes occurring within the waste mass, in which the continuous mass transference from solid phase to liquid and, mainly, to gaseous phase, that causes a waste volume reduction. It was assumed that the parameters used to evaluate both components does not vary with time. The waste behavior is analyzed from its fractions properties, allowing the analysis of problems where the composition and operational conditions change with time. The model can also consider staggered construction of the fill and the simulation of load tests.Several historical cases obtained from literature were simulated. The results of the simulations presented a good representation of the field data, validating the adopted set of hypothesis. During the analysis it was observed a lack of standardization in the way the data are presented and even an absence of data as required by the developed model. In such cases, some hypothesis were adopted based on physical and observational criteria.The developed model was shown to be versatile and can easily be adapted to new problems, including the change of properties of the waste mass with time.

Ceramics are more than merely the most common artifact type in the archaeological record of most parts of the world. While they have long served as chronological markers, they also provide insights into the daily lives of the people who made, used, and exchanged them. In this dissertation I present a study of three ceramic assemblages from the Tlajinga district of Classic period (AD 100 – 650) Teotihuacan, Mexico. I focus on consumption practices and temporal changes by evaluating the ceramics recovered through excavations at two multifamily apartment compounds and a neighborhood center. I first compare the assemblages from each area, then assess how they changed over time. Given that the composition of ceramic assemblages results from different use and depositional practices, one of the main issues addressed is the importance of contextual information for their analysis. Thus, I analyzed primary deposits in relation to stratigraphic data; this way, I provide a basis for the relative dating of the three sites and the refinement of the existing ceramic chronology. Absolute dates came from the largest number of radiocarbon dates analyzed thus far for a residential sector at Teotihuacan. I also employed three analytical techniques: chemical residue analysis to identify vessel contents, and petrographic and neutron activation analysis to identify clay sources. Even though Tlajinga’s inhabitants used most of their utilitarian wares for cooking, storing, and serving purposes, the chemical residue analysis suggests other uses and possible reuses that challenge what we believed was the sole function of certain ceramic vessels. Petrographic and compositional studies group locally manufactured ceramics and distinguish imports into clear provenance clusters, allowing us to better understand interregional exchange and ceramic consumption in Tlajinga. Results illustrate that there is a uniformity in the ceramic assemblages of the two domestic areas but they differ significantly from those recovered from the neighborhood center, of a presumed more public function. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to demonstrate a clear difference between the private and the public spheres at Tlajinga. This has important implications for understanding urban lifeways and the organization of domestic and neighborhood space at Teotihuacan. / 2025-07-01T00:00:00Z

Long-term declines in salmonid populations observed in California Central Valley have prompted efforts to enhance the understanding of how environmental stressors impact sensitive species. Bifenthrin, a current-use insecticide, has been consistently detected throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (Delta) and has been linked to detrimental effects in salmon. Traditionally, aqueous concentration is used in toxicological studies to evaluate the effects of pesticides on aquatic organisms, which assumes that concentration of the toxicant in water is a valid surrogate for dose. The critical body residue approach was established as an improved technique for assessing toxicity of hydrophobic contaminants, but there is a lack of data to support the application of this method in assessing risk of contaminant exposure in the environment. The current study creates a response spectrum model (RSM) demonstrating the relationship between internal residue and effects observed in Chinook Salmon from laboratory-based exposures. To develop the RSM, a series of behavioral and physiological endpoints were measured using bifenthrin-dosed Chinook Salmon to use with previously generated mortality data for incorporation in the model. The most sensitive endpoints were locomotion and shoaling behavior, followed by anxiety, growth, swim performance, upper thermal sensitivity, olfactory response, and lethality. The RSM endpoints were compared to bifenthrin residues in field-collected juvenile Chinook Salmon collected in 2019-2020 as part of our earlier studies. We found bifenthrin tissue residues were at similar levels to the most sensitive endpoints featured in the RSM, suggesting that bifenthrin exposure in the field is likely to cause behavioral effects to salmon as they out-migrate through the Delta. The developed RSM is a tool that could be used by water quality managers to evaluate the extent to which bifenthrin exposure may impact behavior and performance in juvenile salmon, providing a field-based verification of its effects on outmigration.

Residue coupling in protein families has received much attention as an important indicator toward predicting protein structures and revealing functional insight into proteins. Existing coupling methods identify largely pairwise couplings and express couplings over amino acid combinations, which do not yield a mechanistic explanation. Most of these methods primarily use a multiple protein sequence alignment---most likely a resultant alignment---which better exposes couplings and is obtained through manual tweaking of an alignment constructed by a classical alignment algorithm. Classical alignment algorithms primarily focus on capturing conservations and may not fully unveil couplings in the alignment. In this dissertation, we propose methods for capturing both pairwise and higher-order couplings in protein families. Our methods provide mechanistic explanations for couplings using physicochemical properties of amino acids and discernibility between orders. We also investigate a method for mining frequent episodes---called coupled patterns---in an alignment produced by a classical algorithm for proteins and for exploiting the coupled patterns for improving the alignment quality in terms of exposition of couplings. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods on a large collection of sequence datasets for protein families. / Ph. D. / Proteins are biomolecules that comprise amino acid compounds. A chain of amino acid (a.k.a. protein sequence) forms the primary structure of a protein, and the shaping of this chain into various folds gives rise to a more complex 3D structure, a natural state of proteins. It is through structures protein performs various activities. To preserve these activities in proteins, evolution allows only those changes in protein sequences that do not disrupt the overall structures and functions of proteins. Coupling is a evolutionary phenomenon that helps proteins preserve their structures and functions. Two or more amino acid positions are coupled if changes of amino acids at a position is compensated by changes in the other position(s). In this thesis, we propose a set of probabilistic methods for modeling such couplings between two or more positions. Our methods identify the most probable couplings in a set of protein sequences and express them with probabilistic graphical models (a powerful and interpretable framework), which can be used for answering questions related to protein structures, functions, and protein synthesis. Using this notion of coupling, we also develop a method for improving the quality of multiple protein sequence alignment, a widely used tool for protein sequence analyses. We evaluate our methods with a large collection of sequence datasets for protein families, and the results substantiate the efficacy of our methods.

No / The concept that invisible molecular traces may remain in grave deposits, the often discarded ‘dirt’ from substantial mortuary containers, is not widely appreciated. Organic residue analysis of samples from Late Roman (2nd–4th c. AD) burials in Britain has revealed their potential to retain diagnostic biomarkers. Alongside the analysis of visible residues from similar continental burials, these results confirm that resinous substances were employed in the treatment of the dead throughout the Roman Empire. Deposited in close proximity to the body, they masked the reality of decay, signified the status of the deceased and promoted memorialisation. These findings, in conjunction with the sampling approach and methodology detailed here, have important implications for future mortuary research in the late antique period and beyond. / R. C. B. was supported by a Ph.D. studentship from the Art and Humanities Research Council (43019R00209).