Submitted by Jordano Vieira Rocha (jordanorocha@hotmail.com) on 2015-04-30T08:48:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Jordano Vieira Rocha.pdf: 1057882 bytes, checksum: 1ba84113f5ec0c31d9c99f3bebe4714d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2015-04-30T13:02:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Jordano Vieira Rocha.pdf: 1057882 bytes, checksum: 1ba84113f5ec0c31d9c99f3bebe4714d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-30T17:23:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Jordano Vieira Rocha.pdf: 1057882 bytes, checksum: 1ba84113f5ec0c31d9c99f3bebe4714d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-07 / This work assesses the forecasts of three nonlinear methods — Markov Switching Autoregressive Model, Logistic Smooth Transition Autoregressive Model, and Autometrics with Dummy Saturation — for the Brazilian monthly industrial production and tests if they are more accurate than those of naive predictors such as the autoregressive model of order p and the double differencing device. The results show that the step dummy saturation and the logistic smooth transition autoregressive can be superior to the double differencing device, but the linear autoregressive model is more accurate than all the other methods analyzed. / Este trabalho avalia as previsões de três métodos não lineares — Markov Switching Autoregressive Model, Logistic Smooth Transition Autoregressive Model e Autometrics com Dummy Saturation — para a produção industrial mensal brasileira e testa se elas são mais precisas que aquelas de preditores naive, como o modelo autorregressivo de ordem p e o mecanismo de double differencing. Os resultados mostram que a saturação com dummies de degrau e o Logistic Smooth Transition Autoregressive Model podem ser superiores ao mecanismo de double differencing, mas o modelo linear autoregressivo é mais preciso que todos os outros métodos analisados.

v anglickom jazyku Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biophysics and Physical Chemistry Student: Juliána Klimová Supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Bárta, Ph.D. Name of the work: In vitro saturation study of 99m Tc-HYNIC-ramucirumab on SKOV3 cell line. The passive immunotherapy is based on the use of already active immune system components (monoclonal antibodies), which play an important role in cancer cells elimination in the organism. The active immunotherapy tries to stimulate an active anticancer response via an appropriate form of an immunization. When monoclonal antibodies bind to cancer cells, those cells become a selected target for the following removal. The enhancement of the anti- cancer affect of monoclonal antibodies is possible due to the attachment of therapeutic agents like cytostatics, toxins and radionuclides. This presented master thesis is focused on the radiolabeling of the monoclonal antibody ramucirumab, which is directed against the vascular endothelial growth factor type 2 (VEGFR 2), which is often present in cells of some types of cancerous diseases. Within the experimental work, at first, there was a conjugation of chelating agent succinimidyl-6-hydrazino-nicotinamide (HYNIC) on the monoclonal antibody. After this step, radionuclide 99m...

Este trabalho aborda o problema de controle baseado em eventos para sistemas em tempo discreto, considerando que o sistema possui os dispositivos atuadores e sensores em nós diferentes e separados por uma rede de comunicação. A estratégia baseada em eventos consiste em reduzir a utilização da rede ao transmitir as informações do sensor para o atuador apenas quando um evento é gerado pela violação de um determinado limiar pela função de disparo. Primeiramente, são formuladas condições para a estabilidade de um sistema linear com realimentação estática de estados sob a estratégia proposta, com base na teoria de Lyapunov. Como as condições são postas na forma de desigualdades matriciais lineares (LMIs, do inglês linear matrix inequalities), problemas de otimização convexos podem ser utilizados na determinação dos parâmetros da função de disparo, bem como na resolução do problema de co-design, ou seja, do projeto simultâneo do controlador e da função de disparo, os quais são providos na sequência. A partir deste resultado básico, a metodologia é estendida para o caso em que ocorre a saturação do atuador. A seguir, é apresentada a extensão da metodologia para o caso em que o estado da planta não está disponível para o sensor, sendo então utlizado um observador de estados, considerando-se tanto o caso em que o modelo da planta utilizado no observador corresponde exatamente à dinâmica real da planta quanto o caso em que este modelo apresenta incertezas. Exemplos numéricos são apresentados para ilustrar todas as classes de sistemas consideradas, com os quais constata-se que a estratégia proposta é eficiente na redução da utilização dos recursos da rede de comunicação. / This work approaches the problem of event-triggered control for discrete time systems, considering that the system has the actuator and sensor devices in different nodes, separated by a communication network. The event-triggered strategy consists in reducing the utilization of the network by only transmitting the information from the sensor to the actuator when an event is generated by the violation of a determined threshold by the trigger function. Firstly, conditions for the stability of a linear system with a static state feedback under the proposed strategy are formulated based on the Lyapunov theory. Since the conditions are given in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), convex optimization problems can be used for the determination of the trigger function parameters, as well as the co-design of the feedback gain and the trigger function, which are given next. From this basic result, the methodology is extended to the case where occurs the saturation of the actuator. Following, the extension of the methodlogy to the case in which the plant states are not available for measure is presented, and a state-observer is used, considering both the case that the plant model corresponds exactly to the real plant dynamics and the case where this model has uncertainties. Numeric examples are shown to illustrate all the system classes considered, with which it is found that the proposed strategy is efficient in the reduction of the network resources utilization.

This study sought to describe the current state fertility levels by analyzing 105,342 soil samples from different regions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul assigned by CCGL Technology. Thus, about 42% of the samples need to correct soil acidity. Phosphorus was the element that needs more attention in the soil correction. Potassium is present in most samples above the critical level suggesting a poor response to application in current models. Correction sulfur has potential response to crop yields in soya. In a second step, we used the data to study the balance of nutrients in the soil. The data were normalized and CTCpH7,0 was the parameter of soil divided into classes considering the normal distribution with a standard deviation for each class. The results showed that the base saturation to achieve the desired pH varied according to CTCpH7,0v soil. Soils with low CTCpH7,0 present trend lower percentage base saturation than a soil with CTCpH7,0 high. It was also found that the CTCpH7,0 soil influences the availability of the potassium equilibrium saturation. Soils with higher CTCpH7,0 require larger amounts of potassium to reach the critical level of 3% CTCpH7,0. The next step was to correlate the levels of elements in the soil and its relation to the levels shown by leaf analysis. For that were conducted soil sampling in grid 2 ha in an area in the municipality of Cachoeira do Sul, RS. This area was located soybean and collected samples of leaves and plants when they were in the flowering stage in the same spots where they were taken soil samples. Reading was also performed with the equipment GreenSeeker order to correlate them with samples of soil and leaves.The CTCpH7,0 soil, directly influences the availability of potassium in equilibrium saturation. Soils with higher cation exchange capacity tend to require larger amounts of potassium to reach the critical level of 3% of CTCpH7,0. The results of tissue samples of whole plants soybean correlate with the levels of potassium in the soil and its percentage in CTCpH7,0. Nevertheless the use of the analysis of the 3rd trifoliate leaf from flowering as a parameter for recommendation requires further study, as the results do not make clear the relationships between these elements in the leaves and in the soil. / A agricultura de precisão vem se consolidando como uma técnica para melhoria dos níveis de fertilidade do solo. Inicialmente o presente trabalho procurou abordar a situação atual dos níveis de fertilidade através da análise de 105.342 amostras de solo provenientes de diferentes regiões do estado do Rio Grande do Sul cedidos pelo CCGL Tecnologia na camada de 0 a 10 cm. Cerca de 42% das amostras apresentaram necessidade de correção da acidez do solo. O fósforo foi o elemento que necessita maior atenção na correção de solo por apresentar 61,8% das amostras em níveis abaixo do teor crítico. O potássio apresentou 72,1% das amostras acima do teor crítico sugerindo baixa resposta a aplicação nos modelos atuais. A correção com enxofre apresenta potencial de resposta a produtividade da cultura da soja. Em um segundo momento, utilizou-se os dados a fim de estudar o equilíbrio dos nutrientes no solo. Foi utilizado a CTCpH7,0 do solo como parâmetro divido em classes, considerando a distribuição normal com um desvio padrão para cada classe, a fim de estudar o comportamento da saturação de bases e do potássio na saturação. Os resultados demonstraram que a saturação por bases, para atingir o pH desejado, variou conforme a CTCpH7,0 do solo. Solos com baixa CTCpH7,0 apresentam tendência de menores percentuais de saturação por bases que um solo com CTCpH7,0 alta. Também se verificou que a CTCpH7,0 do solo influencia a disponibilidade do potássio no equilíbrio de saturação. Solos com CTCpH7,0 acima de 18 cmolc.dm-³ necessitam quantidades de potássio superiores a 240 ppm para atingir o teor crítico de 3% da CTCpH7,0. O próximo passo foi correlacionar os teores dos elementos no solo e sua relação com os teores apresentados pelas análises foliares. Para isso foram realizados amostragens de solo em grid de 2 ha em uma área de produção de soja no município de Cachoeira do Sul, RS. Nesta área foi implantada a cultura da soja e coletadas amostras de folhas e plantas quando estas se encontravam no estádio de florescimento nos mesmos pontos onde foram retirada as amostras de solo. Também realizou-se a determinação com o equipamento Greenseeker a fim de correlacionar os resultados com as amostras de folha e solo. Os resultados das amostras de tecido de plantas inteiras de soja se correlacionam com os teores de potássio no solo e seu percentual na CTCpH7,0. Apesar disso a utilização da análise foliar do 3° trifólio a partir do florescimento como parâmetro para recomendação ainda precisa ser melhor estudado, pois os resultados não deixam claras as relações entre os elementos nas folhas e estes no solo.

Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) is a promising research field with several trending applications. Even though the phenomenon was first observed centuries ago, there is very little research until the middle 20th century, as the mechanisms behind it were very poorly understood. To this date, the majority of research is based on the development of empirical models and the presentation of laboratory experiments. This work begins with an extensive literature review on the phenomenon, clarifying conflicts between researchers throughout the history and listing the findings of the latest research. The literature review reveals that there are very few mathematical models describing even the most important parameters of the EHD fluid flow and most are either empirical or greatly simplified. As such, practical mathematical models for the assessment of all primary performance characteristics describing EHD fluid accelerators (Voltage Potential, Electric Field Intensity, Corona Discharge Current and Fluid Velocity) were developed and are begin presented in this work. These cover all configurations where the emitter faces a plane or another identical electrode and has a cylindrical surface. For configurations where the emitter faces a plane or another identical electrode and has a spherical surface, Corona Discharge Current and Fluid Velocity models have been presented as well. Laboratory experiments and computer simulations were performed and are being thoroughly presented in Chapter 4, verifying the accuracy and usability of the developed mathematical models. The laboratory experiments were performed using two of the most popular EHD electrode configurations - wire-plane and needle-grid. Finally, the findings of this research are being summarized in the conclusion, alongside with suggestions for future research. The step-by-step development of the equipotential lines mathematical model is presented in Appendix A. Appendix B covers the mathematical proof that the proposed field lines model is accurate and that the arcs are perpendicular to the surface of the electrodes and to all of the equipotential lines.

Esta dissertação aborda a síntese de leis de controle baseadas em compensação dinâmica de saída para sistemas lineares contínuos invariantes no tempo, sujeitos a restrições no atuador. Baseados em condições suficientes expressas em LMIs, obtidas a partir de uma nova condição de setor para a função zona-morta, dois métodos são propostos. O primeiro método propõe a síntese de compensadores dinâmicos de anti-windup de ordem plena e reduzida para um sistema com um controlador dado a priori desprezando limites do atuador. A síntese dos compensadores considera um atuador restrito em amplitude e o sistema sujeito a perturbações limitadas em norma L2. A verificação das condições enunciadas garante a estabilidade da origem em malha fechada, ganho L2 limitado da perturbação à saída controlada do sistema, e um conjunto de inicialização dos estados do sistema tolerante à perturbação de norma L2 máxima, conhecida. Na ausência de perturbação a origem é garantida assintoticamente estável. Para o compensador de ordem plena, condições em LMIs garantem a estabilidade local e global da origem. Para o caso de ordem reduzida, inicialmente obtém-se estas condições expressas em termos de BMIs, sobre as quais aplica-se o Lema de Finsler, e pela escolha apropriada de seus multiplicadores, condições expressas em LMIs são obtidas. Dois métodos baseados em BMIs são propostos para estender os resultados obtidos das otimizações, em esquemas de relaxação. O segundométodo proposto aborda a síntese de controladores dinâmicos, para um atuador restrito em amplitude e taxa de variação, sujeito a perturbações limitadas em norma L2. Propõe-se um controlador dinâmico não-linear, composto por um compensador dinâmico linear, um integrador saturante e laços anti-windup. Esta metodologia possibilita a síntese simultânea de um controlador, e da malha de compensação anti-windup. A verificação das condições enunciadas garante a estabilidade da origem em malha fechada, ganho L2 limitado da perturbação à saída controlada do sistema, e um conjunto de inicialização do sistema tolerante à perturbação de norma L2 máxima, conhecida. Na ausência de perturbação a origem é garantida assintoticamente estável. As condições para estabilidade local e global são formuladas em LMIs a partir da aplicação do lema de Finsler e da escolha apropriada de multiplicadores. Dois métodos também baseados em BMIs podem estender os resultados obtidos das otimizações em esquemas de relaxação. Casos especiais são propostos a partir do método geral obtido; nestes casos condições diretamente em LMI podem ser obtidas. Problemas de otimização são propostos para ambos os métodos para maximizar a tolerância à perturbação e a minimização do ganho L2 da perturbação à saída controlada. Exemplos numéricos são apresentados para ilustrar o efeito de cada método na solução do problema de máxima tolerância à perturbação. / This thesis addresses control law synthesis based upon dynamic output compensation of continuous time invariant linear systems. By sufficient conditions expressed in LMIs, obtained from a new sector condition to the dead-zone function, two methods are proposed. The first one, comprises the synthesis of full and reduced order dynamic antiwindup compensators for a system with a linear controller a priori given, regardless the actuators limits. The compensator synthesis considers an amplitude limited actuator and a system subjected to L2-norm limited perturbation. The verification of the announced conditions assures the closed-loop origin stability, limited L2 gain for the perturbation at the system controlled output, and a system states initialization set tolerating the known L2-norm disturbance. In the absence of disturbance the origin is asymptotically stable guaranteed. For the full-order compensator, LMI conditions assure the local and global origin closed-loop stability. For the reduced order case, at first, BMI conditions are obtained, which, by the Finsler Lemma and proper choosing of itsmultipliers, become LMIs. Two methods are presented based on BMIs in order to improve the obtained results, by relaxation schemes. The second method addresses the synthesis of dynamic controllers considering a linear plant with the actuator restricted both in amplitude and rate, the system is meant to be subjected to L2 norm disturbances. The proposed methodology issues a non-linear dynamic controller, composed by a dynamic linear compensator, a saturating integrator and anti-windup loops. This approach allows the simultaneous synthesis of both the controller and the anti-windup loops. The validity of its announced conditions guarantees the closedloop origin stability, an upper-bound to the disturbances L2 gain on the plant’s controlled output, and an initialization set for the system that stands the specified disturbance. In the absence of disturbances the system’s origin is asymptotically stable guaranteed. Both local and global stability conditions are given in terms of LMIs. Two BMI-based methods arise in order to improve the results obtained on the referred optimizations problems by relaxation schemes. Special cases are derived from the general method; in these cases directly LMI conditions may be obtained. Optimization problems arise in both methods in order to maximize disturbance tolerance and rejection, by means of respectively its L2-norm, and L2-gain at the controlled output. Numerical Examples are presented in order to illustrate the effect of each method in the solution of the disturbance toleration problem.

Este trabalho apresenta uma nova metodologia para a síntese simultânea de controlador e laço anti-windup visando o problema de seguimento de referências em sistemas sujeitos à saturação. Além do projeto dos controladores, será apresentada uma estimativa dos domínios de estabilidade e do conjunto de referências admissíveis. O seguimento de referências constantes e a rejeição de perturbações, também constantes, será garantido pelo princípio do modelo interno, ou seja, uma ação integral será adicionada a uma malha de controle com realimentação de saída. Além da adição desta ação integral, uma mudança de coordenadas será aplicada ao sistema, onde será garantido que o único ponto de equilíbrio que garante erro nulo de seguimento está no interior da sua região de linearidade. Os efeitos da saturação no sistema serão considerados através de condições de setor modificadas, as quais introduzem novos graus de liberdade ao projeto. Em um primeiro momento, a metodologia será aplicada para sistemas de tempo contínuo, considerando um esquema de controle conhecido como “integradores inteligentes”. Posteriormente, este esquema será simplificado, no que foi chamado de solução “clássica”. Além de apresentar um esquema de controle mais simples e um número menor de condições, estas condições são obtidas diretamente na forma de LMIs, evitando assim, a utilização de esquemas iterativos. Alguns problemas de otimização serão apresentados, podendo levar a três objetivos de controle distintos: maximização da referência admissível, maximização da condição inicial e maximização da perturbação admissível. Por meio de exemplos, será mostrado que esta solução apresenta resultados menos conservativos do que os apresentados na literatura corrente, além de chamar a atenção para um problema ignorado por outros autores. Este problema se refere à existência de pontos de equilíbrio dentro dos domínios de estabilidade mas fora da região linear, o que impossibilita a garantia de erro de seguimento nulo. Num segundo momento, esta metodologia será estendida para sistemas de tempo discreto. Mais uma vez, condições LMI serão obtidas a fim de projetar os controladores e oferecer estimativas dos domínios de estabilidade. Por não haver uma referência direta para comparação dos resultados, a metodologia será aplicada para exemplos estáveis, instáveis e com integradores, tanto no caso monovariável quanto no caso multivariável. Finalmente, será apresentado um estudo dos pontos de equilíbrio fora da região de linearidade, como mencionado anteriormente, considerando tanto sistemas de tempo contínuo quanto em tempo discreto. Este estudo será realizado para alguns tipos de sistemas, considerando apenas o caso monovariável. Será provado que estes equilíbrios só são possíveis em plantas assintoticamente estáveis, exigindo a consideração de uma condição extra na solução do problema de otimização. / This work addresses the problem of tracking constant references for linear systems subject to control saturation. The main idea is to present LMI conditions in order to design both a stabilizing controller and an anti-windup gain. These conditions ensure that the trajectories of the closed-loop system are bounded by an invariant ellipsoidal set, provided that the initial conditions are taken in this set and the references and the disturbances belong to a certain admissible set. The constant reference tracking and constant disturbance rejection is taken into account by the internal model principle, i. e., considering the introduction of an integral action in a unitary output feedback scheme. We also introduce the error co-ordinate representation, where is proved that there exists only one equilibrium point inside the linearity region and that this equilibrium point ensures perfect reference tracking. In order to consider the saturation effects, we use a modified sector condition, introducing new degrees of freedom to the synthesis problem. In a first step, the proposed framework was applied to the control scheme called “intelligent integrators”, regarding continuous-time systems. However, this control scheme does not allow the simultaneous synthesis so it is simplified to the so called “classical” anti-windup scheme. Based on this simplified control structure, LMI conditions are directly derived, avoiding therefore the necessity of applying iterative schemes. Convex optimization problems aiming at the maximization of the invariant set of admissible states and/or the maximization of the set of admissible references/disturbances are proposed. We show, by means of an example, that the obtained results are less conservative than the ones previously presented in related works. In these examples, we also show that a study about the existence of other equilibria inside the invariant set is worthwhile. Later, the proposed framework is extended to discrete-time systems, where new LMI conditions are presented in order to synthesize the controller and present an estimate of the stability domains. Due to a lack of related works, our framework is applied to stable, unstable and integrator examples. These examples consider both single and multi-variable systems. Finally, we conclude this work with a study about the possibility of existence of other equilibria inside the invariant set. For the single-input case, we show that this is only possible if the open-loop system is asymptotically stable. In this case, in order to avoid convergence to these points, additional constraints on the admissible references to be tracked should be considered. It is worth to emphasize that such kind of analysis has not been performed in previous works.

abstract: Magnetic resonance flow imaging techniques provide quantitative and qualitative information that can be attributed to flow related clinical pathologies. Clinical use of MR flow quantification requires fast acquisition and reconstruction schemes, and minimization of post processing errors. The purpose of this work is to provide improvements to the post processing of volumetric phase contrast MRI (PCMRI) data, identify a source of flow bias for cine PCMRI that has not been previously reported in the literature, and investigate a dynamic approach to image bulk cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage in ventricular shunts. The proposed improvements are implemented as three research projects. In the first project, the improvements to post processing are made by proposing a new approach to estimating noise statistics for a single spiral acquisition, and using the estimated noise statistics to generate a mask distinguishing flow regions from background noise and static tissue in an image volume. The mask is applied towards reducing the computation time of phase unwrapping. The proposed noise estimation is shown to have comparable noise statistics as that of a vendor specific noise dynamic scan, with the added advantage of reduced scan time. The sparse flow region subset of the image volume is shown to speed up phase unwrapping for multidirectional velocity encoded 3D PCMRI scans. The second research project explores the extent of bias in cine PCMRI based flow estimates is investigated for CSF flow in the cerebral aqueduct. The dependance of the bias on spatial and temporal velocity gradient components is described. A critical velocity threshold is presented to prospectively determine the extent of bias as a function of scan acquisition parameters. Phase contrast MR imaging is not sensitive to measure bulk CSF drainage. A dynamic approach using a CSF label is investigated in the third project to detect bulk flow in a ventricular shunt. The proposed approach uses a preparatory pulse to label CSF signal and a variable delay between the preparatory pulse and data acquisition enables tracking of the CSF bulk flow. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biomedical Engineering 2017

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-01-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:10:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigues_ms_me_jabo.pdf: 1277888 bytes, checksum: fca43b2044e8d0aa95f9d93c7040361b (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Diversos fatores são responsáveis pela variabilidade espacial na produtividade das culturas e dentre estes estão os atributos do solo. Contudo, o que se tem observado, geralmente, é uma baixa correlação entre os mapas de produtividade e os mapas de atributos do solo. Uma hipótese para essa baixa correlação é a diferença na amostragem de cada uma dessas variáveis. O trabalho objetivou estudar o padrão de distribuição espacial dos atributos do solo e da produtividade do milho e as relações de causas e efeitos utilizando-se diferentes intensidades de amostragem. Os dados foram coletados seguindo uma grade amostral contendo 100 pontos georreferenciados. Os pontos foram dispostos em intervalos equidistantes, sendo de 10 m no sentido das linhas da cultura, ao longo de quatro transeções paralelas com 250 m de comprimento, distanciadas entre si 4,5 m, formando um retângulo com quatro colunas e 25 linhas, constituindo os 100 pontos de amostragem. Cada ponto amostral foi composto por cinco linhas de 10 m da cultura, constituindo uma célula amostral de 45 m2. Em cada ponto amostral retiraram-se amostras de solo nas profundidades de 0-0,1 e 0,1-0,2 m. Foram avaliados os atributos do solo textura, pH, teores de matéria orgânica, P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, H+Al, soma de bases, capacidade de troca de cátions, saturação por bases, densidade, porosidade total, macroporosidade e microporosidade. Foram estabelecidas intensidades de amostragens por meio de eliminação de pontos intermediários partindo da amostragem inicial, que continha 100 pontos, obtendo-se conjunto de dados com 100, 75, 50 e 25 pontos. Realizou-se a análise estatística descritiva dos dados e geoestatística. Baseado na análise de correlação simples, regressão múltipla ‘stepwise’ e semelhança dos mapas de isolinhas, os atributos que mais se correlacionaram... / Soil attributes play an important role in spatial variability of crop yield. However, what has been observed, generally, is a low correlation between the yield maps and maps of soil attributes. One hypothesis for this low correlation is the difference in the sampling of each of these variables. This research had as objective to study spatial distribution pattern of soil attributes affecting corn yield and their causeeffect relationship, for different sampling intensities. Spatial variability was determined for 100 georeferenced sample points from a sampling grid. Sample points were arranged in regular 10-m intervals along the rows and in four parallel 250-m long and 4.5-m spaced transects, resulting in a 4-column and 25-row rectangle (100 sample points). Each sample point consisted of five 10-m rows, totaling 45 m2. Samples were taken from the depths 0-0,1 and 0,1-0,2 m. Soil texture attributes, pH, organic matter content, P, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and H+Al levels, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, bulk density, total porosity, macroporosity and microporosity were evaluated. Sampling intensities were established by eliminating intermediary points from the initial 100-point sampling, resulting data sets of 100, 75, 50 and 25 points. Statistical analysis consisted of data description and geostatistics. Based on the simple correlation analysis, stepwise multiple regression and similarity among isoline maps, the attributes that showed stronger spatial correlation to corn yield were base saturation and clay content. For these attributes, data sets of 75 and 100 points showed higher similarity in the spatial distribution pattern for corn yield. The analysis of cross-semivariograms showed that the best correlation between corn yield and soil attributes was obtained with a sampling intensity of 100 points. It was possible to confirm the hypothesis that, when performing the soil... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Synchrocyclotrons and laser based particle accelerators, developed with the goal to enable more compact particle therapy facilities, may bring highly pulsed radiation field to external beam radiation therapy. In addition, such highly pulsed fields may be desirable due to their potential clinical benefits regarding better healthy tissue sparing or improved gating for moving tumors. However, they pose new challenges for dosimetry, the corner stone of any application of ionizing radiation. These challenges affect both clinical and radiation protection dosimetry. Air-filled ionization chambers, which dominate clinical dosimetry, face the problem of increased signal loss due to volume recombination when a highly pulsed field liberates a large amount of charge in a short time in the chamber. While well established descriptions exist for this volume recombination for the moderately pulsed fields in current use (Boag's formulas), the assumptions on which those descriptions are based will most likely not hold in the prospective, highly pulsed fields of future accelerators. Furthermore, ambient dose rate meters used in radiation protection dosimetry as survey meters or fixed installations are generally only tested for continuous fields, casting doubt on their suitability to measure pulsed fields. This thesis investigated both these aspects of dosimetry - clinical as well as radiation protection - to enable the medical application of highly pulsed radiation fields. For a comprehensive understanding, experimental investigations were coupled with theoretical considerations and developments. Pulsed fields, varying in both dose-per-pulse and pulse duration over a wide range, were generated with the ELBE research accelerator, providing a 20 MeV pulsed electron beam. Ionization chambers for clinical dosimetry were investigated using this electron beam directly, with an aluminium Faraday cup providing the reference measurement. Whereas the dose rate meters were irradiated in the photon field generated from stopping the electron beam in the Faraday cup. In those measurements, the reference was calculated from the ionization chamber, then serving a an electron beam monitor, cross-calibrated to the photon field with thermoluminescent dosimeters. Three dose rate meters based on different operating principles were investigated, covering a large portion of the operating principles used in radiation protection: the ionization chamber based RamION, the proportional counter LB 1236-H10 and the scintillation detector AD-b. Regarding clinical dosimetry, measurements of two prominent ionization chamber geometries, plane-parallel (Advanced Markus chamber) and thimble type (PinPoint chamber), were performed. In addition to common air-filled chambers, chambers filled with pure nitrogen and two non-polar liquids, tetramethylsilane and isooctane, were investigated. In conjunction with the experiments, a numerical solution of the charge liberation, transport, and recombination processes in the ionization chamber was developed to calculate the volume recombination independent of the assumptions necessary to derive Boag's formulas. Most importantly, the influence of the liberated charges in the ionization chamber on the electric field, which is neglected in Boag's formulas, is included in the developed calculation. Out of the three investigated dose rate meters only the RamION could be identified as an instrument truly capable of measuring a pulsed field. The AD-b performed below expectations (principally, a scintillator is not limited in detecting pulsed radiation), which was attributed to the signal processing, emphasizing the problem of a typical black-box signal processing in commercial instruments. The LB 1236-H10, on the other hand, performed as expected of a counting detector. While this supports the recent effort to formalize these expectations and standardize testing for counting dosimeters in DIN IEC/TS 62743, it also highlights the insufficiency of counting detectors for highly pulsed fields in general and shows the need for additional normative work to establish requirements for dose rate meters not based on a counting signal (such as the RamION), for which no framework currently exists. With these results recognized by the German radiation protection commission (SSK) the first steps towards such a framework are taken. The investigation of the ionization chambers used in radiation therapy showed severe discrepancies between Boag's formulas and the experimentally observed volume recombination. Boag's formulas describe volume recombination truly correctly only in the two liquid-filled chambers. All the gas-filled chambers required the use of effective parameters, resulting in values for those parameters with little to no relation to their original meaning. Even this approach, however, failed in the case of the Advanced Markus chamber for collection voltages ≥ 300 V and beyond a dose-per-pulse of about 100 mGy. The developed numerical model enabled a much better calculation of volume recombination and allowed the identification of the root of the differences to Boag's formulas as the influence of the liberated charges on the electric field. Increased positive space charge due to increased dose-per-pulse slows the collection and reduces the fraction of fast, free electrons, which are unaffected by volume recombination. The resultant increase in the fraction of charge undergoing volume recombination, in addition to the increase in the total amount of charge, results in an increase in volume recombination with dose-per-pulse that is impossible to describe with Boag's formulas. It is particularly relevant in the case of high electric fields and small electrode distances, where the free electron fraction is large. In addition, the numerical calculation allows for arbitrary pulse durations, while Boag's formulas apply only to very short pulses. In general, the numerical calculation worked well for plane-parallel chambers, including those filled with the very diverse media of liquids, nitrogen and air. Despite its increased complexity, the thimble geometry could be implemented as well, although, in the case of the PinPoint chamber, some discrepancies to the experimental data remained, probably due to the required geometrical approximations. A possible future development of the numerical calculation would be an improved description of the voltage dependence of the volume recombination. At the moment it requires characterizing a chamber at each desired collection voltage, which could be eliminated by an improved modeling of the volume recombination's dependence on collection voltage. Nevertheless, the developed numerical calculation presents a marked improvement over Boag's formulas to describe the dose-per-pulse dependence and pulse duration dependence of volume recombination in ionization chambers, in principle enabling the application of ionization chambers in the absolute dosimetry of highly pulsed fields.