Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2008 / Title from PDF title page (viewed May 27, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69)

This thesis describes the findings of research conducted as to the feasibility of using the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (USCGS) digital topographic database for the automated prediction of radio transmitter coverage area. The objective was to assess the adequacy of the USCGS database to support radio-frequency path-loss and terrain clearance calculations. The assessment was made by investigating the basic features of the tapes and of the coverage calculation process. From this investigation, a prototype computer program was developed which calculated coverage areas from sample data tapes. The computer code for the program is included. / M.S.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurodegenerative disorder that causes memory loss and cognitive dysfunction. It affects one in five people over the age of 80 and is distressing for both sufferers and their families. A transitional stage between normal ageing and dementia including AD is termed a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Recent studies have shown that people with MCI may convert to AD over time although not all MCI cases progress to AD. Much research is now focussing on early detection of AD and diagnosing an MCI that will progress to AD to allow prompt treatment and disease management before the neurons degenerate to a stage beyond repair. Hence, the ability to obtain a method of identifying MCI is of great importance. Virtual reality plays an important role in healthcare and offers opportunities for detection of MCI. There are various studies that have focused on detection of early AD using virtual environments, although results remain limited. One significant drawback of these studies has been their limited capacity to incorporate levels of difficulty to challenge users' capability. Furthermore, at best, these studies have only been able to discriminate between early AD and healthy elderly with about 80% of overall accuracy. As a result, a novel virtual simulation called Virtual Reality for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease (VREAD) was developed. VREAD is a quick, easy and friendly tool that aims to investigate cognitive functioning in a group of healthy elderly participants and those with MCI. It focuses on the task of following a route, since Topographical Disorientation (TD) is common in AD. An investigation was set up with two cohorts: non-elderly and elderly participants. The findings with regard to the non-elderly are important as they represent a first step towards implementation with elderly people. The results with elderly participants indicate that this simulation based assessment could provide a method for the detection of MCI since significant correlations between the virtual simulation and existing neuropsychological tests were found. In addition, the results proved that VREAD is comparable with well-known neuropsychological tests, such as Cambridge Neuropsychological Automated Test Battery, Paired Associate Learning (CANTAB PAL) and Graded Naming Test (GNT). Furthermore, analysis through the use of machine learning techniques with regard to the prediction of MCI also obtained encouraging results. This novel simulation was able to predict with about 90% overall accuracy using weighting function proposed to discriminate between MCI and healthy elderly.

My study sought to acquire quantitative data from the surface of lithic tools and use that data to discriminate tools used on different contact materials. An experimental archaeological wear production method was conceived, whereby I and several volunteers produced wear on chert, heat-treated chert, and obsidian flakes by using those flakes on several contact materials. The flakes were then analyzed using a laser scanning confocal microscope, which recorded three-dimensional surface data from each tool. The data was analyzed using cluster analysis to find the ideal combination of parameters which correctly discriminated the flakes based on use-wear data. After finding acceptable parameters which grouped flakes appropriately through cluster analysis, those groups were subjected to a discriminant analysis. Each analysis returned a p-value under .05, meaning that the clustering based on the parameters Sq and Sfd produced by the cluster analysis was not random, but indicative of these variables' ability to discriminate lithic use-wear. The major advantage of the approach developed in this study is that it can quantitatively discriminate use-wear produced by different contact materials on flakes with no a priori information at all. / by Elliott Farber. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Perdas de água em redes de distribuição acontecem por diversas razões, uma delas, o excesso de pressão, pode ser prevenido através da divisão das redes em Distritos de Medição e Controle. Este método vem sendo utilizado há algum tempo como modo de prevenir sobrepressão na rede, aumentando a confiabilidade e vida útil das tubulações e dispositivos do sistema. Atualmente, alguns autores propõem diferentes tipos de metodologias para uma eficiente definição de Distritos de Medição e Controle. Neste trabalho foi criada e aplicada uma metodologia baseada no estudo de uma área (Setor Aracy) na cidade de São Carlos - SP guiado por análise topográfica. A rede de distribuição do setor de abastecimento foi analisada indicando um subdimensionamento em alguns trechos, assim como, foi concluído que já existe uma setorização na área que não foi guiada por análise topográfica e sim por implantação dos loteamentos. Um estudo de setorização que tem como objetivo o gerenciamento de pressões deve ser norteado por análise da topografia do local juntamente com dispositivos gerenciadores de pressão (válvulas, boosters etc). / Water losses in network distribution systems may happen due to many reasons, one of them, the overpressure, can be prevented through the partitioning of these networks in District Metered Areas. This method has been used for some time as a way of preventing network overpressure, enhancing the reliability and lifespan of pipes and system devices. Currently, some authors propose different methodologies to an efficient delimitation of the District Metered Areas. In this work, a methodology was conceived and applied based on the study of an area (Aracy Sector) in the city of São Carlos - SP guided by topographic analysis. The distribution network of the supply sector was analyzed indicating an undersize in some pipes, as well as, it was concluded that a sectorization already exists in the area that is not guided by topographic analysis, but by the implementation of the allotments. A sectorization study that aims to manage pressures should be guided by topographic analysis of the site, together with pressure management devices (valves, boosters etc).

Excitotoxicity is the overexcitation of neurons due to the excessive activation of excitatory amino acid receptors and is thought to be involved in many neurodegenerative states. The manner in which the neuron breaks down during excitotoxicity is still unclear. The current study used the organotypic hippocampal slice culture model to examine the time-dependent loss of the synaptic vesicular protein synaptophysin and the loss of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor NR1 subunit availability following an excitotoxic insult (20 μM NMDA) to provide a better understanding of the topographical nature of neuronal death following NMDA receptor activation. Significant NMDA-induced cytotoxicity in the CA1 region of the hippocampus (as measured by propidium iodide uptake) was evident early (15 minutes after exposure) while significant loss of the NR1 subunit and synaptophysin was found at later timepoints (72 and 24 hours, respectively), suggesting delayed downregulation or degradation in axons and dendrites as compared to the soma. The addition of the competitive NMDA receptor antagonist 2-amino-7-phosphonovaleric acid (APV) significantly attenuated all NMDA-induced effects. These results suggest that NR1 and synaptophysin levels as measured by immunoreactivity are not reliable indicators of early cell death.

The aim of this study is to develop a framework for the integration of ancillary topographic information into supervised image classification to improve the accuracy of the classification product. Integration of topographic data into classification is basically through modification of training set in order to provide additional sensitivity to topographical characteristics associated with each land cover class in the study area. Multi-spectral Landsat 7 ETM 30x30 meter bands are the remotely sensed data used in the study. Ancillary topographic data are elevation, slope and aspect derived from 1/25000 scaled topographic map contours. A five-phase methodological framework was proposed for developing procedures for the integration of topographical data into a standard image classification task. Briefly / first phase is the selection of initial class spectral signatures, second phase is analyzing the information content of class spectral signatures and topographical data for a potential relationship, and quantification of the related topographical data. Third phase is the selection of class topographical signatures from the related topographical data. Fourth phase is redefinition of two training sets where one of which includes spectral information only and the other includes both spectral and topographical information. The last phase is classification. Two products were derived where, first product used bands as input and was trained by spectral information only and the second was the product for which bands and topographical data was used as input and it was trained with both spectral and topographical information. Method was applied to image and associated ancillary topographical data covering rural lands mainly composed of agricultural practices and rangelands in Ankara. Method provided an improvement of 10% in overall accuracy for the classification with the integration of topographical data compared to that depended only on spectral data from remotely sensed images.

The need for the public areas within urban environments is increasing day by day. This thesis focuses on urban balconies as one of the important element of public open areas. Their historical backgrounds, contribution to the cities, categorization and exemplification form important topics for explaining the concept. The study also searches the important natural features that effect the urban development of Bursa and questions the place of urban balconies between them. While explaining the past and the present situations, types and the usages of urban balconies&amp / #8217 / of Bursa / this thesis emphasizes their existing but neglected qualitative and quantitative values, that have the potential to play an important role for the physical shaping of the city so as the formation of urban image. Related to this, also the importance of the revitalization of the urban balconies as public open areas takes part in this study. Key Words: Urban Balconies, Vista Points, Topographical Features, Public Open Areas, Bursa.

While many systems and standards like CAD systems or CityGML permit the user to represent the geometry and the semantics of building interior models, their use for applications where spatial analysis and/or real-time modifications are required are limited since they lack the possibility to store topological relationships between the elements. In this thesis a new topological data structure, the dual half-edge (DHE) is presented. It permits the representation of the topology of building models with the interior included. It is based on the idea of simultaneously storing a graph in 3D space and its dual graph, and to link the two. Euler-type operators for incrementally constructing 3D models (for adding individual edges, faces and volumes to the model while updating the dual structure simultaneously), and navigation operators (for example to navigate from a given point to all the connected planes or polyhedra) are proposed. The DHE also permits the assigning of attributes to any element. This technique allows the handling of important query types and performs analysis based on the building structure, for example finding the nearest exterior exit to a given room, as in disaster management planning. As the structure is locally modifiable the model may be adapted whenever a particular pathway is no longer available. The proposed DHE structure adds significant analytic value to the increasingly popular CityGML model, and to the CAD field where the dual structure is of growing interest.

Perdas de água em redes de distribuição acontecem por diversas razões, uma delas, o excesso de pressão, pode ser prevenido através da divisão das redes em Distritos de Medição e Controle. Este método vem sendo utilizado há algum tempo como modo de prevenir sobrepressão na rede, aumentando a confiabilidade e vida útil das tubulações e dispositivos do sistema. Atualmente, alguns autores propõem diferentes tipos de metodologias para uma eficiente definição de Distritos de Medição e Controle. Neste trabalho foi criada e aplicada uma metodologia baseada no estudo de uma área (Setor Aracy) na cidade de São Carlos - SP guiado por análise topográfica. A rede de distribuição do setor de abastecimento foi analisada indicando um subdimensionamento em alguns trechos, assim como, foi concluído que já existe uma setorização na área que não foi guiada por análise topográfica e sim por implantação dos loteamentos. Um estudo de setorização que tem como objetivo o gerenciamento de pressões deve ser norteado por análise da topografia do local juntamente com dispositivos gerenciadores de pressão (válvulas, boosters etc). / Water losses in network distribution systems may happen due to many reasons, one of them, the overpressure, can be prevented through the partitioning of these networks in District Metered Areas. This method has been used for some time as a way of preventing network overpressure, enhancing the reliability and lifespan of pipes and system devices. Currently, some authors propose different methodologies to an efficient delimitation of the District Metered Areas. In this work, a methodology was conceived and applied based on the study of an area (Aracy Sector) in the city of São Carlos - SP guided by topographic analysis. The distribution network of the supply sector was analyzed indicating an undersize in some pipes, as well as, it was concluded that a sectorization already exists in the area that is not guided by topographic analysis, but by the implementation of the allotments. A sectorization study that aims to manage pressures should be guided by topographic analysis of the site, together with pressure management devices (valves, boosters etc).