Stable isotopes of water are used as tracers for characterizing surface water/groundwater interactions. Gaps in sampling protocol for these tracers in low gradient canals limits their use in studies of canal-groundwater exchanges. Several sampling methods were developed to determine the temporal and spatial isotopic variation in a canal. The influence of a flow control gate on isotopic composition and the sensitivity of isotope mixing calculations to choice of sampling method were also evaluated. There was little variability in the isotopic composition of the canal along a cross section perpendicular flow. Some variation occurred monthly and seasonally. The greatest variability occurred between the upstream and downstream side of the flow control gates when the gates were closed. Mixing calculations were not sensitive to the choice of sampling method. This study shed light on isotope sampling methods in canals for canal-groundwater interactions studies. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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Submitted by (edna.saturno@ufrpe.br) on 2016-11-22T14:04:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea Nunes Moreira de Carvalho.pdf: 1145944 bytes, checksum: c5211386f8b018740c232834b3c5772a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-22T14:04:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea Nunes Moreira de Carvalho.pdf: 1145944 bytes, checksum: c5211386f8b018740c232834b3c5772a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The thrips are important pests of table grape in the Submédio do Vale São Francisco. This research aimed to study thrips occurrence in three crops systems of grape (certified, semi-conventional, and conventional), the spatial distribution of thrips and the best technique to sample thrips in grape, and to characterize the damage caused by thrips attack on grape fruits. The densities of thrips were evaluated in five areas of Vitis vinifera varieties Sugraone and Brazil, Petrolina, PE. Leaves and flowers were collected, during two subsequent years. The techniques of beating and total remove were compared to survey thrips on flowers. The Taylor power law was used to know the population distribution. To determine injuries and damage to the inflorescence the study was conducted in Casa Nova, BA on the Thompson Seedless grape variety, with infestation levels of 0, 2, 4 and 8 thrips per inflorescence plus the treatment resulting from farm control (12 or more trips). The thrips species found from leaf survey were Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouché), Retithrips syriacus Mayet, Selenothrips rubrocinctus (Giard), Frankliniella schultzei (Trybom), Frankliniella sp., Scolothrips sp. and nymphs of the Aelothripidae. Thrips found from inflorescences survey were: F. schultzei, Frankliniella brevicaulis Hood, Frankliniella rodeos (Moulton), Frankliniella gardeniae and Frankliniella sp. The Sugraone grape variety conducted in the semi-conventional system produced higher densities of thrips than others systems. There were no correlations between climatic factors with the population of thrips surveyed. In our study, thrips population exhibited contagious distribution and the appropriate sampling technique was beating flower (10 flowers/ha). Sampling thrips on leaves should be performed on leaves located in the middle of the medial branch, and using 10 plants/ha. The equation y = 2.574 + 48.46x (F = 59.98, P = 0.0001, r2 = 0.512) estimated the intensity of injuries in the fruits as function of thrips densities studied. The presence of a whitish halo around a small scar characterizes the damage of thrips on the fruties. The study showed that there is a complex of thrips on the vineyard and the information generated in this research is essential to the success of a sampling plan. / Os tripes são importantes pragas da videira no Submédio do Vale São Francisco. Os objetivos dessa pesquisa foram realizar um levantamento e a flutuação populacional das espécies de tripes que ocorrem em videira; determinar a distribuição espacial e ajustar um plano de amostragem convencional para tripes; e caracterizar as injúrias provocadas pelo ataque de tripes nas inflorescências. As densidades de tripes foram avaliadas em cinco áreas de Vitis vinifera (cultivares Sugraone e Brasil), em Petrolina-PE. Foram coletadas folhas e inflorescências, durante dois anos consecutivos. As técnicas de batida e coleta de inflorescências foram comparadas. Utilizou-se a lei de potência de Taylor para aferir a distribuição da população. Para determinação das injúrias na inflorescência, instalou-se um experimento, em Casa Nova-BA, com a variedade Thompsom Seedless, utilizando-se os níveis de infestação 0, 2, 4 e 8 tripes/inflorescência e o tratamento do produtor (12 ou mais tripes). As espécies de tripes encontradas em folhas foram: Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Bouché), Retithrips syriacus Mayet, Selenothrips rubrocinctus (Giard), Frankliniella schultzei (Trybom), Frankliniella sp., Scolothrips sp. e ninfas de Aelothripidae, e nas inflorescências: F. schultzei, Frankliniella brevicaulis Hood, Frankliniella rodeos (Moulton), Frankliniella gardeniae Moulton e Frankliniella sp. O sistema semi-convencional, cultivar Sugraone, foi superior aos demais sistemas de manejo. Não houve correlações entre os fatores climáticos com a população de tripes. A distribuição foi agregada e a técnica de batida da flor a mais adequada (10 inflorescências/ha). A amostragem deve ser realizada em uma folha localizada no meio do ramo mediano da planta, em 10 plantas/ha. A equação y = 2,574 + 48,46x (F= 59,98; P= 0,0001; r2= 0,512) estimou a intensidade de injúrias nas bagas e o nível de infestação. A presença de um halo esbranquiçado ao redor de uma pequena cicatriz caracterizou as injúrias nas bagas. Observou-se a existência de um complexo de espécies de tripes na videira, e que as informações geradas nesta pesquisa são essenciais para o sucesso de um plano de amostragem.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Animal Sciences and Industry / Jason C. Woodworth / A total of 6,465 nursery pigs were used in 8 experiments. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of Lactobacillus plantarum (LP) or fermented soybean meal (FSBM) on nursery pig growth performance. A LP × FSBM interaction was detected for G:F, where LP and FSBM individually improved G:F, but the effect was not additive. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of increasing levels of LP on nursery pig performance. No evidence for differences in growth performance were observed among dietary treatments. Experiment 3 and 4 examined the effects of fish meal source and level on nursery pig growth performance. Overall, a source × level interaction for ADG, G:F and final BW was observed as increasing fish meal source 1 improved ADG and G:F; however, pigs fed fish meal source 2 had improved ADG and G:F at 3%, but decreased at 6%. Pigs fed fish meal source 3 had no further improvements in ADG and G:F beyond the 3% inclusion. No evidence for differences were detected between the dietary treatments for ADFI. Experiment 5 evaluated the effects of feeding fish solubles on nursery pig performance. Pigs fed diets with fish meal had increased ADG and ADFI compared to pigs fed the control diet. There was no evidence for differences in growth performance as fish solubles increased. Experiment 6 and 7 investigated the effects of enzymatically-treated soybean meal (ESBM) on nursery pig performance. Results indicated that nursery pigs fed diets with greater than 9% of ESBM resulted in decreased ADFI and final BW. Experiment 8 evaluated the effects of dietary electrolyte balance (dEB) on nursery pig performance. Increasing dEB in diets from weaning to 21-d after weaning resulted in an increase in ADG and BW, which was the result of a marginally significant improvement in ADFI and G:F. Finally, an experiment was conducted to determine the optimal strategy for collecting and submitting samples that adequately describe the nutrient levels in diets collected from a commercial swine facility. Sampling feeders with a probe resulted in less variability on an individual basis, but seemed to get washed out when individual samples were pooled to form a composite sample.

This dissertation investigates the application of computational intelligence methods in the analysis of nonlinear chaotic systems in the framework of many known and newly designed complex systems. Parallel comparisons are made between these methods. This provides insight into the difficult challenges facing nonlinear systems characterization and aids in developing a generalized algorithm in computing algorithmic complexity measures, Lyapunov exponents, information dimension and topological entropy. These metrics are implemented to characterize the dynamic patterns of discrete and continuous systems. These metrics make it possible to distinguish order from disorder in these systems. Steps required for computing Lyapunov exponents with a reorthonormalization method and a group theory approach are formalized. Procedures for implementing computational algorithms are designed and numerical results for each system are presented. The advance-time sampling technique is designed to overcome the scarcity of phase space samples and the buffer overflow problem in algorithmic complexity measure estimation in slow dynamics feedback-controlled systems. It is proved analytically and tested numerically that for a quasiperiodic system like a Fibonacci map, complexity grows logarithmically with the evolutionary length of the data block. It is concluded that a normalized algorithmic complexity measure can be used as a system classifier. This quantity turns out to be one for random sequences and a non-zero value less than one for chaotic sequences. For periodic and quasi-periodic responses, as data strings grow their normalized complexity approaches zero, while a faster deceasing rate is observed for periodic responses. Algorithmic complexity analysis is performed on a class of certain rate convolutional encoders. The degree of diffusion in random-like patterns is measured. Simulation evidence indicates that algorithmic complexity associated with a particular class of 1/n-rate code increases with the increase of the encoder constraint length. This occurs in parallel with the increase of error correcting capacity of the decoder. Comparing groups of rate-1/n convolutional encoders, it is observed that as the encoder rate decreases from 1/2 to 1/7, the encoded data sequence manifests smaller algorithmic complexity with a larger free distance value.

Response of flexible structures — such as cable-supported bridges and aircraft wings — is associated with a number of uncertainties in structural and flow parameters. This thesis is aimed at efficient uncertainty quantification in a few such flow and flow-induced structural response problems. First, the uncertainty quantification in the lift force exerted on a submerged body in a potential flow is considered. To this end, a new method — termed here as semi-intrusive stochastic perturbation (SISP) — is proposed. A sensitivity analysis is also performed, where for the global sensitivity analysis (GSA) the Sobol’ indices are used. The polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) is used for estimating these indices. Next, two stability problems —divergence and flutter — in the aeroelasticity are studied in the context of reliability based design optimization (RBDO). Two modifications are proposed to an existing PCE-based metamodel to reduce the computational cost, where the chaos coefficients are estimated using Gauss quadrature to gain computational speed and GSA is used to create nonuniform grid to reduce the cost even further. The proposed method is applied on a rectangular unswept cantilever wing model. Next, reliability computation in limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) is considered. While the metamodel performs poorly in this case due to bimodality in the distribution, a new simulation-based scheme proposed to this end. Accordingly, first a reduced-order model (ROM) is used to identify the critical region in the random parameter space. Then the full-scale expensive model is run only over a this critical region. This is applied to the rectangular unswept cantilever wing with cubic and fifth order stiffness terms in its equation of motion. Next, the wind speed is modeled as a spatio-temporal process, and accordingly new representations of spatio-temporal random processes are proposed based on tensor decompositions of the covariance kernel. These are applied to three problems: a heat equation, a vibration, and a readily available covariance model for wind speed. Finally, to assimilate available field measurement data on wind speed and to predict based on this assimilation, a new framework based on the tensor decompositions is proposed. The framework is successfully applied to a set of measured data on wind speed in Ireland, where the prediction based on simulation is found to be consistent with the observed data.

Emissions from airport operations are of significant concern because of their potential impact on local air quality and human health. The currently limited scientific knowledge of aircraft emissions is an important issue worldwide, when considering air pollution associated with airport operation, and this is especially so for ultrafine particles. This limited knowledge is due to scientific complexities associated with measuring aircraft emissions during normal operations on the ground. In particular this type of research has required the development of novel sampling techniques which must take into account aircraft plume dispersion and dilution as well as the various particle dynamics that can affect the measurements of the aircraft engine plume from an operational aircraft. In order to address this scientific problem, a novel mobile emission measurement method called the Plume Capture and Analysis System (PCAS), was developed and tested. The PCAS permits the capture and analysis of aircraft exhaust during ground level operations including landing, taxiing, takeoff and idle. The PCAS uses a sampling bag to temporarily store a sample, providing sufficient time to utilize sensitive but slow instrumental techniques to be employed to measure gas and particle emissions simultaneously and to record detailed particle size distributions. The challenges in relation to the development of the technique include complexities associated with the assessment of the various particle loss and deposition mechanisms which are active during storage in the PCAS. Laboratory based assessment of the method showed that the bag sampling technique can be used to accurately measure particle emissions (e.g. particle number, mass and size distribution) from a moving aircraft or vehicle. Further assessment of the sensitivity of PCAS results to distance from the source and plume concentration was conducted in the airfield with taxiing aircraft. The results showed that the PCAS is a robust method capable of capturing the plume in only 10 seconds. The PCAS is able to account for aircraft plume dispersion and dilution at distances of 60 to 180 meters downwind of moving a aircraft along with particle deposition loss mechanisms during the measurements. Characterization of the plume in terms of particle number, mass (PM2.5), gaseous emissions and particle size distribution takes only 5 minutes allowing large numbers of tests to be completed in a short time. The results were broadly consistent and compared well with the available data. Comprehensive measurements and analyses of the aircraft plumes during various modes of the landing and takeoff (LTO) cycle (e.g. idle, taxi, landing and takeoff) were conducted at Brisbane Airport (BNE). Gaseous (NOx, CO2) emission factors, particle number and mass (PM2.5) emission factors and size distributions were determined for a range of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, as a function of aircraft type and engine thrust level. The scientific complexities including the analysis of the often multimodal particle size distributions to describe the contributions of different particle source processes during the various stages of aircraft operation were addressed through comprehensive data analysis and interpretation. The measurement results were used to develop an inventory of aircraft emissions at BNE, including all modes of the aircraft LTO cycle and ground running procedures (GRP). Measurements of the actual duration of aircraft activity in each mode of operation (time-in-mode) and compiling a comprehensive matrix of gas and particle emission rates as a function of aircraft type and engine thrust level for real world situations was crucial for developing the inventory. The significance of the resulting matrix of emission rates in this study lies in the estimate it provides of the annual particle emissions due to aircraft operations, especially in terms of particle number. In summary, this PhD thesis presents for the first time a comprehensive study of the particle and NOx emission factors and rates along with the particle size distributions from aircraft operations and provides a basis for estimating such emissions at other airports. This is a significant addition to the scientific knowledge in terms of particle emissions from aircraft operations, since the standard particle number emissions rates are not currently available for aircraft activities.

Nightclubs and restaurant bars have become major sources of noise pollution particularly in areas close to residential dwellings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of noise emanating from nightclubs and restaurant bars on the community of Melville, Johannesburg. This study followed both qualitative and quantitative research methods. A total of 100 respondents were randomly sampled within the study area. Qualitative data was collected using a structured questionnaire. A calibrated sound level meter was used to measure environmental noise levels at 10 different measuring points. The research finding revealed that about:  87% of noise levels measured with the sound level meter did not comply with officially acceptable levels of 40dB at night.  69% of respondents indicated that the main source of noise is pollution is nightclubs.  78% of respondents described noise as annoying, disturbing and unwanted.  57% of respondents indicated that members of their household have suffered from sleeping disorders due to noise activities at night disrupting their sleep patterns and resulting in irritability and fatigue. The noise measurements were taken on weekends and public holidays during the day from 10h00 to 14h30 and at night from 22h00 to 02h30. The research findings revealed that the residents of Melville experienced high level of noise at night with nightclub as major source of noise and as a result the majority of the sampled population complained about irritability, fatigue and sleeping disorders due to exposure to noise. The outcome of this research indicated the need of health education on the adverse effects of noise pollution and the need of sound insulation at places of entertainment. Implementation of a noise management policy is needed in order to effectively control and manage the noise pollution in its area of jurisdiction and regular noise level monitoring by constantly taking noise measurements by law enforcements officers. / Department of Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)