Let p be a prime and q = pk. The polynomial gn,q isin Fp[x] defined by the functional equation Sigmaa isin Fq (x+a)n = gn,q(xq- x) gives rise to many permutation polynomials over finite fields. We are interested in triples (n,e;q) for which gn,q is a permutation polynomial of Fqe. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this dissertation, we present many new families of permutation polynomials in the form of gn,q. The permutation behavior of gn,q is becoming increasingly more interesting and challenging. As we further explore the permutation behavior of gn,q, there is a clear indication that gn,q is a plenteous source of permutation polynomials. We also describe a piecewise construction of permutation polynomials over a finite field Fq which uses a subgroup of Fq*, a “selection” function, and several “case” functions. Chapter 5 of this dissertation is devoted to this piecewise construction which generalizes several recently discovered families of permutation polynomials.

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The reversed-field pinch (RFP) is a device for magnetic confinement of fusion plasmas. The main objective of fusion plasma research is to realise cost-effective thermonuclear fusion power plants. The RFP is highly unstable as can be explained by the theory of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Feed-back control technology appears to enable a robustly stable RFP operation.  Experimental control and identification of nonaxisymmetric multimode MHD is pursued in this thesis. It is shown that nonparametric multivariate identification methods can be utilised to estimate MHD spectral characteristics from plant-friendly closed-loop operational input-output data. It is also shown that accurate tracking of the radial magnetic field boundary condition is experimentally possible in the RFP. These results appear generically useful as tools in both control and physics research in magnetic confinement fusion. / <p>QC 20120508</p>

Magister Scientiae - MSc (Chemistry) / Plants have been widely used in traditional medicine for a number of ailments, among which may be included infectious diseases such as colds, influenza, chicken pox, TB, etc. as well as lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cancer. Seaweeds have also been shown to contribute to the maintenance of health through their nutritional and medicinal properties and recently, a great deal of interest has developed towards the isolation of bioactive compounds from marine sources due to their numerous health benefits. Furthermore, marine algae are valuable sources of structurally diverse metabolites with scientifically proven therapeutic claims. Chemical constituents of red seaweed, Porphyra capensis was investigated in this present study along with subsequent brine shrimp lethality assay analysis of the crude extracts. The compounds isolated from the plant were from the hexane (6) and butanol (2) extracts. These compounds were all isolated and purified by various chromatographic techniques, namely silica gel chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 gel as well as C18 reversed phase silica gel. The structures of the isolated compounds were analysed and characterised by NMR, GC-MS, ESI MS and FTIR spectroscopy. Eight compounds were isolated and identified as phytol, desmosterol, 9-eicosenoic acid, 5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentanoic acid, palmitic acid, methyl (E)-hexadec-9-enoate, glycerol and compound 1 (novel compound). All the compounds were isolated from Porphyra capensis for the first time. The hexane, butanol and methanol extracts were found to be non-toxic with the brine shrimp test LC50 value at least two times greater than ?g/ml.

To understand the physical mechanism underlying the cross-field transport of mass and energy in magnetoplasmas is a long-standing problem in fusion research. Woods (1987) has recently developed a second-order transport theory which has been used to explain a number of transport-related phenomena observed in tokamaks. Here, we apply second-order transport theory to the reverse field pinch (RFP) and a phenomenon observed in tokamaks known as 'snakes'. Expressions for the mass and energy confinement times in the RFP, τ_p and τ_e, are deduced and agreement with experimental results from HBTX is found. For typical operating conditions the times τ_p ~ 0.1ms and τ_e ~ 0.2ms are observed in HBTX. Second-order transport theory predicts τ_p ~ 0.4ms and τ_e ~ 0.4ms for this machine. Scaling laws for β_p versus η_e,β_p versus I_φ and τ_e versus I_φ are compared with measurements from HBTX and agree well with observation. Snakes are large density perturbations observed in JET after fuel pellet injection. Typical snakes in JET are remarkably stable and are found to have density decay times longer than predictions based on neoclassical theory (Stringer 1987). After their formation, snakes have even been observed to grow (Weller <i>et al.</i> 1987), which suggests the presence of an inward diffusion mechanism. There is also some evidence for a temperature depression in the snakes region. An explanation of the stability and energy balance in snakes based on second-order transport theory is proposed.

In the present work, Current Reversal Equilibrium Configurations (CRECs) in the context of Magnetohydrodinamic (MHD) equilibrium are considered. The hamiltonian nature of the magnetic field lines is used to introduce the concept of magnetic surfaces and their relation to the Grad-Shafranov (G-S) equation. From a geometrical perspective and the Maxwell equations, it is shown that current reversal configurations in two-dimensional equilibrium do not generate the usual nested topology of the equilibrium magnetic surfaces. The concept of intersecting critical curves is introduced to describe the CRECs and recently published equilibria are shown to be compatible with such description. The equilibrium with a single magnetic island is constructed analytically, through a local successive approximations method, valid for any choice of the source functions of the G-S equation. From the local solution, an estimate of the island width in terms of simple quantities is deduced and verified to a good accuracy with recently published CRECs; the accuracy of this simple model suggests the existence of strong topological constraints in the formation of the equilibria. Lastly, an instability mechanism is conjectured to explain the lack of conclusive experimental evidence of reversed currents, in favor of the current clamp hypothesis. / No presente trabalho, as configurações de equilíbrio com corrente reversa (CRECs), são consideradas no contexto de Equilíbrio Magnetoidrodinâmico. A natureza hamiltoniana das linhas de campo magnético é usada para introduzir o conceito de superfícies magnéticas, e sua relação com a equação de Grad-Shafranov (G-S). Desde uma perspectiva geométrica e usando as equações de Maxwell, é demonstrado que as configurações de corrente reversa em equilíbrios bidimensionais não é compativel com as topologias aninhadas usuais para as superfícies magnéticas de equilíbrio. O conceito de curvas críticas é introduzido para descrever as CRECs e é observado que os equilíbrios recentemente publicados satisfazem esta descrição. O equilíbrio com uma única ilha magnética é construído analiticamente, por meio de aproximações sucessivas locais, este é válido para qualquer escolha das funções arbitrárias da equação G-S. A partir da solução local, se desenvolve uma estimativa do tamanho da ilha magnética em termos de quantidades simples. Esta estimativa concorda bem com as CRECs da literatura recente, sugerindo pela simplicidade do modelo, que existem fortes restrições topológicas no estabelecimento do equilíbrio. Finalmente, na forma de conjectura, introduzimos um mecanismo para instabilidades que tenta dar conta da falta de evidência experimental conclusiva em relação às CRECs em favor da hipótese de corrente unidirecional (current clamp).

Orientador: Elias Basile Tambourgi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T05:30:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fischer_GilvanAnderson_D.pdf: 1330009 bytes, checksum: a03c001d3375eaae07873f0e8dd8d168 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Bromelina é um conjunto de enzimas proteolíticas encontradas nos vegetais da família Bromeliaceae, da qual o abacaxi é o mais conhecido. A bromelina tem diversos usos, todos baseados em sua atividade proteolítica. Com a necessidade de desenvolver novos processos de purificação e concentração desses compostos a extração líquido-líquido por micela reversa mostra-se como uma técnica atrativa, pois possui a capacidade de solubilizar biomoléculas específicas de uma solução aquosa, como o extrato bruto do abacaxi. Dentre os equipamentos disponíveis para a extração líquido-líquido foi usada uma micro-coluna de campânulas pulsantes, visando a separação e purificação de biomoléculas em operação contínua. A melhor condição de extração da bromelina com micelas reversas em operação batelada foi aplicada na coluna de extração. Com o objetivo de encontrar as condições ótimas de operação da coluna foi utilizada a técnica de planejamento de experimentos do tipo estrela, de forma a abranger toda região de operação. Para isto variouse a razão Vazão Fase Leve/Vazão Total e o intervalo entre os pulsos na entrada para determinar as variações na saída do rendimento de proteína total e o fator de purificação. Os valores dos pontos ótimos para as variáveis respostas encontrados foram: fator de purificação de 5 vezes e produtividade de 1,28 mg/min. E as condições operacionais que levam ao ótimo das respostas foram: Vazão Fase Leve/Vazão Total de 0,67 e intervalo entre os pulsos de 1 s. Para representar a dinâmica de operação da coluna de extração usouse uma simples aproximação baseada nas redes neurais, pois este modelo de conexão tem a habilidade de aprender procedimentos complexos do sistema físico. As entradas foram representadas pelos passados e presentes valores da razão vazão fase leve/vazão total e no intervalo entre os pulsos, e as saídas o valor presente do rendimento de proteína total e o fator de purificação. Com o objetivo de encontrar a melhor topologia, treinou-se a rede com o algoritmo Regularização Bayesiana, variando-se o número de neurônios da camada intermediária para encontrar o melhor modelo. A topologia final da rede neural foi 16-9-2, com funções de ativação sigmoidal. Observou-se o bom desempenho da rede neural com respeito à Proteína Total e o Fator de Purificação em toda a faixa de valores desejada / Abstract: Bromelain is a set of proteolitics enzymes found in vegetables of the Bromeliaceae family, from which pineapple is known more. Bromelain has several uses, ali based on its proteolitics activity. There is the necessity to develop new processes for purification and concentration of these composites, the liquid-liquid extraction for reversed micelles reveals as one attractive technique, therefore it has had the specific capacity of getting soluble biomolecules of an aqueous solution, as the crude extract of the pineapple. Amongst equipment for the liquid-liquid extraction available it was developed a microcolumn of pulsed caps, with the purpose to get an equipment for the accomplishment of extraction processes liquid-liquid, appropriate for the separation and purification of biomolecules in continuous operation. The best condition of bromelain extraction with reversed micelles in batch operation was applied in the extraction column. To find the best operation conditions of the column, the star design of experiments was used, covering ali region of operation. For this it had been varied the ratio between low density phase to total flow and the range of time between pulses on the input to determine the variations of the total protein yield and purification factor on output each three minutes. The best values found were: 5 for purification factor and 1.28 mg/min for productivity. And operational conditions that lead to results were: 0.67 for the ratio between low-density phase to total flow and 1 s for range of time between pulses. To represent the dynamics of operation of the extraction column a simple approach based on the neural networks was used, therefore this model of connection has the ability to leam complex procedures of the physical system. The input had been represented by the pasts and presents values of the ratio between low density phase to total flow and the range of time between pulses, and the outputs the present value of the total protein yield and purification factor. To find the best topology, the network was trained with Bayesian Regularization algorithm, varying the number of neurons on hidden layer to find the best model. The final topology of the neural network was 16-9-2, with sigmoid activation functions. It was observed that the performance of the neural network is good with respect to the total protein yield and purification factor in ali range of values desired. / Doutorado / Sistemas de Processos Quimicos e Informatica / Doutor em Engenharia Química

This thesis examines the initial and long-term market reactions following reversed profit warnings on the Nordic markets. Furthermore, it investigates if firm size and trading volume can explain the magnitude of the market reaction. The study is based on 118 reversed profit warnings announced on the Nordic markets during 2010-2019 applying an event study approach, measuring abnormal returns. To examine if firm size and trading volume affects the market reaction, this study uses a regression analysis to complement the event study. Results show a significant initial market reaction, confirming that the market is genuinely surprised by a profit warning. In accordance with the efficient market hypothesis, the market is also seen to correct its expectations based on the new information. The initial reaction is more substantial for smaller firms and higher trading volume is seen to increase abnormal returns. Our long-term results show a significant reversal in share price, indicating that there is an overreaction to reversed profit warnings. The long-term regression results show that neither firm size nor trading volume explain the reversal in share price.

A wide range of unstable current driven MHD modes is present in the re- versed τeld pinch (RFP) conτguration. An ideally conducting wall facing the plasma can stabilize the ideal MHD modes. In the presence of a resistive wall characterized by the wall time τw, fast mode rotation with the frequency exceeding the inverse wall time gives stabilization for resistive MHD modes. The ideal MHD modes in the RFP are non-rotating modes and can not be stabilized by the resistive wall. Instead they are converted into resistive wall modes (RWM) growing with a growth rate proportional to the inverse of the wall time τw. EXTRAP T2R is an RFP device equipped with a thin resistive wall having the wall time shorter than the plasma pulse duration τw &lt; τp. This feature allows the study of non-resonant non-rotating resistive wall modes. Resistive wall modes dynamics has been studied in EXTRAP T2R . RWM growth rates has been measured and compared with linear MHD stability calculations. Quantitative agreement is observed. In the case τw &lt; τp the RWM can cause discharge degradation and should be stabilized. Active feedback is the way to stabilize the RWM in the RFP. An intelligent shell scheme is one possible feedback scenario. An active feed- back system including a set of sensors and discrete active coils is installed in EXTRAP T2R. The intelligent shell tries to keep the magnetic flux zero at the positions of the sensor. The analog PID controller for the intelligent shell feedback scheme has been studied. A model of the active control system was developed and comparison with the experimental results showed good agree- ment. Encouraging experimental results on the active feedback stabilization of multiple RWMs in the RFP plasmas were obtained.

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