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Ever since Halley (1686) superimposed onto a map of land forms. the direction of trade winds and monsoons between and near the tropics and attempted to assign them a physical cause. homo-sapiens has attempted to develop procedures which quantify the level of change in a spatial process. or assess the relationship between associated spatially measured variables. Most spatial data. whether it be originally point. linear or areal in nature. can be converted by a suitable procedure into a continuous form and plotted as an isarithmic map i.e. points of equal height are joined. Once in that form it may be regarded as a statistical surface in which height varies over area in much the same way as the terrain varies on topographic maps. Particularly in environmental statistics. the underlying shape of the surface is unknown. and hence the use of non-parametric techniques is wholly appropriate. For most applications. the location of data points is beyond the control of the map-maker hence the analyst must cope with irregularly spaced data points. A variety of possible techniques for describing a surface are given in chapter two, with attention focusing on the methodology surrounding kernel density estimation. Once a surface has been produced to describe a set of data. a decision concerning the number of contours and how they should be selected has to be taken. When comparing two sets of data. it is imperative that the contours selected are chosen using the same criteria. A data based procedure is developed in chapter three which ensures comparability of the surfaces and hence spurious conclusions are not reached as a result of inconsistencies between surfaces. Contained within this chapter is a discussion of issues which relate to other aspects of how a contour should be drawn to minimise the potential for inaccuracies in the swface fitting methodology. Chapter four focuses on a whole wealth of techniques which are currently available for comparing surfaces. These range from the simplest method of overlaying two maps and visually comparing them to more involved techniques which require intensive numerical computation. It is the formalisation of the former of these techniques which forms the basis of the methodology developed in the following two chapters to discern whether change/association has materialised between variables.One means of quantifying change between two surfaces, represented as a contoured surface, is in terms of the transformation which would be required for the two surfaces to be matched. Mathematically, transformations are described in terms of rotation, translation and scalar change. Chapter five provides a geometrical interpretation of the three transformations in terms of area, perimeter, orientation and the centre of gravity of the contour of interest and their associated properties. Although grid resolution is fundamentally a secondary level of smoothing, this aspect of surface fitting has generally been ignored. However to ensure consistency across surfaces, it is necessary to decide firstly, whether data sets of different sizes should be depicted using different mesh resolutions and secondly, how fine a resolution provides optimal results, both in terms of execution time and inherent surface variability. This aspect is examined with particular reference to the geometric descriptors used to quantify change. The question of random noise contained within a measurement process has been ignored in the analysis to this point. However in practice, some form of noise will always be contained within a process. Quantifying the level of noise attributable to a process can prove difficult since the scientist may be over optimistic in his evaluation of the noise level. In developing a suitable set of test statistics, four situations were examined, firstly when no noise was present and then for three levels of noise, the upper bounds of which were 5, 15 and 25%. Based on these statistics, a series of hypothesis tests were developed to look at the question of change for individual contour levels Le. local analysis. or alternatively for a whole surface by combining the statistics and effectively performing a multivariate test. A number of problems are associated with the methodology. These difficulties are discussed and various remedial measures are proposed. The theoretical derivation of the test statistic, both in the absence and presence of random noise, has proved mathematically to be extremely complex, with a number of stringent assumptions required to enable the theoretical distribution to be derived. A major simulation study was subsequently undertaken to develop the empirical probability distribution function for the various statistics defining change for the four levels of noise. Also for each of the statistics, the resultant power of the test was examined.The remaining chapter explicitly examines two case studies and how the methodology developed in the preceding two chapters may be implemented. The first example cited raises the question, 'Has a seasonal temperature change resulted during the fifty year span, 1930 to 1980, within the contiguous United States of America?' The data base was provided by the United States Historical Climatology Network (HCN) Serial Temperature and Precipitation Data, Quinlan et al (1987). The second problem examines whether there is an association between background radiation levels, within three regions of the south-west England, and the location of various fonns of leukaemia or whether case location is a product of the population distribution. Differences between this example and the previous illustration materialise in terms of the spatial resolution of the data; the leukaemia data are defined as punctual data points and are extremely sparse; the population distribution is defined as areal regions; with the radiation data being of a more continuous format. The methodology developed required modification, but aside of this a preliminary set of conclusions were reached.

Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) is a remote sensing technique that provides high resolution range measurements between the laser scanner and Earth’s topography. These range measurements are mapped as 3D point cloud with high accuracy (< 0.1 meters). Depending on the geometry of the illuminated surfaces on earth one or more backscattered echoes are recorded for every pulse emitted by the laser scanner. Lidar has the advantage of being able to create elevation surfaces in 3D, while also having information about the intensity of the returned pulse at each point, thus it can be treated as a spatial and as a spectral data system. The 3D elevation attributes of Lidar data are used in this study to identify possible water surface points quickly and efficiently. The approach incorporates the use of Laplacian curvature computed via wavelets where the wavelets are the first and second order derivatives of a Gaussian kernel. In computer science, a kd-tree is a space-partitioning data structure used for organizing points in a k dimensional space. The 3D point cloud is segmented by using a kd-tree and following this segmentation the neighborhood of each point is identified and Laplacian curvature is computed at each point record. A combination of positive curvature values and elevation measures is used to determine the threshold for identifying possible water surface points in the point cloud. The efficiency and accurate localization of the extracted water surface points are demonstrated by using the Lidar data for Williamson County in Texas. Six different test sites are identified and the results are compared against high resolution imagery. The resulting point features mapped accurately on streams and other water surfaces in the test sites. The combination of curvature and elevation filtering allowed the procedure to omit roads and bridges in the test sites and only identify points that belonged to streams, small ponds and floodplains. This procedure shows the capability of Lidar data for water surface mapping thus providing valuable datasets for a number of applications in geomorphology, hydrology and hydraulics. / text

This thesis paper presents a simultaneous 3D mapping and geolocation of road surface technique that combines local road surface mapping and global camera localization. The local road surface is generated by structure from motion (SFM) with multiple views and optimized by Bundle Adjustment (BA). A system is developed for the global reconstruction of 3D road surface. Using the system, the proposed technique globally reconstructs 3D road surface by estimating the global camera pose using the Adaptive Extended Kalman Filter (AEKF) and integrates it with local road surface reconstruction techniques. The proposed AEKF-based technique uses image shift as prior. And the camera pose was corrected with the sparse low-accuracy Global Positioning System (GPS) data and digital elevation map (DEM). The AEKF adaptively updates the covariance of uncertainties such that the estimation works well in environment with varying uncertainties. The image capturing system is designed with the camera frame rate being dynamically controlled by vehicle speed read from on-board diagnostics (OBD) for capturing continuous data and helping to remove the effects of moving vehicle shadow from the images with a Random Sample and Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. The proposed technique is tested in both simulation and field experiment, and compared with similar previous work. The results show that the proposed technique achieves better accuracy than conventional Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) method and achieves smaller translation error than other similar other works. / Master of Science / This thesis paper presents a simultaneous three dimensional (3D) mapping and geolocation of road surface technique that combines local road surface mapping and global camera localization. The local road surface is reconstructed by image processing technique with optimization. And the designed system globally reconstructs 3D road surface by estimating the global camera poses using the proposed Adaptive Extended Kalman Filter (AEKF)-based method and integrates with local road surface reconstructing technique. The camera pose uses image shift as prior, and is corrected with the sparse low-accuracy Global Positioning System (GPS) data and digital elevation map (DEM). The final 3D road surface map with geolocation is generated by combining both local road surface mapping and global localization results. The proposed technique is tested in both simulation and field experiment, and compared with similar previous work. The results show that the proposed technique achieves better accuracy than conventional Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) method and achieves smaller translation error than other similar other works.

Este trabalho estuda a aplicação de um Ensaio Não-Destrutivo de Inspeção (ENDI), baseado na técnica Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen (RMB), na detecção de regiões não homogêneas em chapas de aços carbono. Apresentando os avanços no desenvolvimento de uma nova variante de ensaio não-destrutivo magnético, denominada Escaneamento Contínuo de Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen (ECRMB). O RMB é gerado por abruptas mudanças na magnetização de materiais magnéticos quando são submetidos a campos magnéticos variáveis. Essas mudanças são afetadas pela micro-estrutura e a presença e distribuição de tensões elásticas (compressão e tração), deformação plástica e alteração da micro-estrutura. Neste trabalho analisou-se a sensibilidade dos sinais de RMB na detecção de deformações plásticas em parâmetros tais como, frequência de campo magnético de excitação e a velocidade de movimentação da sonda. O comportamento do parâmetro RMSRMB dos sinais de RMB se correlacionou com a posição das regiões não homogêneas detectadas nas amostras. Sendo, contudo ainda feita uma avaliação da técnica aplicada para a medição, fazendo uma comparação dos resultados obtidos com a técnica de Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen Estático (RMBE) que é uma técnica já estabelecida na literatura. Os resultados mostraram, que para cada um dos casos estudados, é possível detectar a posição do dano produzido. Essa nova técnica aumenta o espectro de soluções de ENDI para problemas não contemplados pelas técnicas existentes. / This work the application of a technique of Non-Destructive Inspection Test (NDIT) based on the technical Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN), the detection of non-homogeneous regions in sheets of carbon steels. It presents advances in the development of a new technique of magnetic non-destructive testing. Particularly a variant nominated Scanning Continuous Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (SCRMB). The MBN are generated by abrupt changes in the magnetization of materials when subjected to varying magnetic fields. These changes are affected by the microstructure and the presence and distribution of elastic stresses (compression and tension). We analyzed the sensitivity of the signal MBN detection plastic deformation on parameters such as magnetic field excitation frequency and the probe movement speed. The RMSMBN parameter behavior of MBN signals correlated with the position of non-homogeneous regions detected in the samples. An evaluation of the technique applied to the measurement was performed by making a comparison of the results obtained with MBNE technique, is a technique already established in the literature. The results showed that for each of the studied cases, it is possible to detect the position of the damage produced. This new technique increases the spectrum of NDIT solutions for problems not covered by existing techniques.

Este trabalho estuda a aplicação de um Ensaio Não-Destrutivo de Inspeção (ENDI), baseado na técnica Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen (RMB), na detecção de regiões não homogêneas em chapas de aços carbono. Apresentando os avanços no desenvolvimento de uma nova variante de ensaio não-destrutivo magnético, denominada Escaneamento Contínuo de Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen (ECRMB). O RMB é gerado por abruptas mudanças na magnetização de materiais magnéticos quando são submetidos a campos magnéticos variáveis. Essas mudanças são afetadas pela micro-estrutura e a presença e distribuição de tensões elásticas (compressão e tração), deformação plástica e alteração da micro-estrutura. Neste trabalho analisou-se a sensibilidade dos sinais de RMB na detecção de deformações plásticas em parâmetros tais como, frequência de campo magnético de excitação e a velocidade de movimentação da sonda. O comportamento do parâmetro RMSRMB dos sinais de RMB se correlacionou com a posição das regiões não homogêneas detectadas nas amostras. Sendo, contudo ainda feita uma avaliação da técnica aplicada para a medição, fazendo uma comparação dos resultados obtidos com a técnica de Ruído Magnético de Barkhausen Estático (RMBE) que é uma técnica já estabelecida na literatura. Os resultados mostraram, que para cada um dos casos estudados, é possível detectar a posição do dano produzido. Essa nova técnica aumenta o espectro de soluções de ENDI para problemas não contemplados pelas técnicas existentes. / This work the application of a technique of Non-Destructive Inspection Test (NDIT) based on the technical Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN), the detection of non-homogeneous regions in sheets of carbon steels. It presents advances in the development of a new technique of magnetic non-destructive testing. Particularly a variant nominated Scanning Continuous Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (SCRMB). The MBN are generated by abrupt changes in the magnetization of materials when subjected to varying magnetic fields. These changes are affected by the microstructure and the presence and distribution of elastic stresses (compression and tension). We analyzed the sensitivity of the signal MBN detection plastic deformation on parameters such as magnetic field excitation frequency and the probe movement speed. The RMSMBN parameter behavior of MBN signals correlated with the position of non-homogeneous regions detected in the samples. An evaluation of the technique applied to the measurement was performed by making a comparison of the results obtained with MBNE technique, is a technique already established in the literature. The results showed that for each of the studied cases, it is possible to detect the position of the damage produced. This new technique increases the spectrum of NDIT solutions for problems not covered by existing techniques.

Of the wide variety of existing optical techniques for non-contact 3D surface mapping, Fourier Transform Interferometry (FTI) is the method that most elegantly combines simplicity with high speed and high resolution. FTI generates continuous-phase surface maps from a projected optical interference pattern, which is generated with a simple double-pinhole source and collected in a single snapshot using conventional digital camera technology. For enhanced stability and reduced system size, the fringe source can be made from a fiber optic coupler. Unfortunately, many applications require mapping of surfaces that contain challenging features not ideally suited for reconstruction using FTI. Rough and discontinuous surfaces, commonly seen in applications requiring imaging of rock particles, present a unique set of obstacles that cannot be overcome using existing FTI techniques. This work is based on an original analysis of the limitations of FTI and the means in which errors are generated by the particular features encountered in the aggregate mapping application. Several innovative solutions have been developed to enable the use of FTI on rough and discontinuous surfaces. Through filter optimization and development of a novel phase unwrapping and referencing technique, the Method of Multiple References (MoMR), this work has enabled surface error correction and simultaneous imaging of multiple particles using FTI. A complete aggregate profilometry system has been constructed, including a MoMR-FTI software package and graphical user interface, to implement these concepts. The system achieves better than 22µm z-axis resolution, and comprehensive testing has proven it capable to handle a wide variety of particle surfaces. A range of additional features have been developed, such as error correction, particle boundary mapping, and automatic data quality windowing, to enhance the usefulness of the system in its intended application. Because of its high accuracy, high speed and ability to map varied particles, the developed system is ideally suited for large-scale aggregate characterization in highway research laboratories. Additionally, the techniques developed in this work are potentially useful in a large number of applications in which surface roughness or discontinuities pose a challenge. / Ph. D.

Numerous chemical species are important to the health of biological systems. Some species can be beneficial at low doses and harmful at high doses. Other species are highly reactive and trigger serious cell damage. Improved methods to detect the presence and activity of such species are needed. In this work, several biologically important species were studied using appropriate analytical techniques. Fluoride is an important species in human physiology. It strengthens teeth and gives protection against dental caries. However, elevated concentrations of fluoride in the body can lead to health problems such as dental and skeletal fluorosis. Reported fluoride sensors used fluorescence quenching methods in determining fluoride concentration. Our study explored synthesis and characterization of 1,8-bis(phenylthioureido) naphthalene (compound 1) as a fluoride sensing molecule. Compound 1 showed a remarkable 40 fold enhancement in fluorescence with 5 eq of fluoride addition. Compound 1 also showed possibility of visual colorimetric sensing with fluoride. Free radical mediated oxidations of biomolecules are responsible for different pathological conditions in the human body. Superoxide is generated in cells and tissues during oxidative burst. Moderately reactive superoxide is converted to peroxyl, alkoxyl and hydroxyl radicals by various enzymatic, chemical, and biochemical processes. Hydroxyl radical imparts rapid, non specific oxidative damage to biomolecules such as proteins and lipids. Superoxide also reacts with nitric oxide in cells to yield peroxynitrite, which is highly reactive and damages biomolecules. Both hydroxyl radical and peroxynitrite readily react with amino acids containing aromatic side chains. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) carries cholesterol in the human body. Elevated concentration of LDL is a potential risk factor for atherosclerosis. Previous research drew a strong correlation between oxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and plaque formation in the arterial wall. More importantly, oxidative damage causes structural changes to the LDL protein (apo B-100) which might facilitate the uptake of LDL by macrophages. In this study LDL was exposed to various concentrations of hydroxyl radical peroxynitrite and hypochlorite. Thereafter oxidized amino acid residues in apo B-100 were mapped by LC-MS/MS methods. We found widely distributed oxidative modifications in the apo B-100 amino acid sequence.