Higher-order spectral analysis of acoustical waveforms can provide phase information that is not retained in calculations of power spectral density. In the propagation of high intensity sound, nonlinearity can cause substantial changes in the waveform as frequency components interact with one another. The bispectrum, which is one order higher than power spectral density, may provide a useful measure of nonlinearity in propagation by highlighting spectral regions of interaction. This thesis provides a review of the bispectrum, places it in the context of nonlinear acoustic propagation, and presents spectra calculated as a function of distance for numerically propagated acoustic waveforms. The calculated spectra include power spectral density, quad-spectral density, bispectrum, spatial derivative of the bispectrum, bicoherence, and skewness function. / text

Identification of trace unknown analytes in complex samples remains a significant challenge for analytical chemistry. Mass spectrometry (MS) and analytical separations techniques can now be used to develop and support a new analytical strategy called non-target analysis which aims to provide comprehensive identification and quantification of all detectable chemical species in a complex sample. This thesis addresses challenges currently limiting the utility of this non-target approach by developing analytical methods for acquiring MS data suitable for identification of trace unknowns and investigating current tools available for unknown identification from MS spectral data. Liquid chromatography (LC) - MS, a widely used technique in trace analysis, was used to develop an analytical method capable of simultaneously acquiring high resolution MS and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data for hundreds of metabolites in urine. An emerging separation technique called high field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) was also investigated, as an alternative to LC, for the identification of non-target analytes in urine. Modifications were carried out to the FAIMS-MS source interface allowing for transmission of small metabolite ions from FAIMS to MS. The challenge of direct electrospray (ESI) in urine analysis using ESI-FAIMS-MS was addressed by using sample dilution and extending MS data acquisition time using FAIMS. This allowed for higher quality MS data to be acquired for low abundance urinary metabolites than was possible by LC-MS and the complete elimination of ionization suppression in dilute urine samples. Insight gained into ESI suppression in complex samples allowed for two methods of semi-quantification to be proposed for non-target analytes in complex samples without using unavailable chemical standards. To address the challenge of unknown identification, faced throughout this thesis, an integrated approach was implemented to identify metabolites based only on spectral data without the usual requirement of availability of chemical standards. This approach combined spectral libraries, literature reports on ion chemistry and de novo identification based on gas phase ion chemistry with a detailed fragmentation study on nucleic acid bases, notably protonated uracil. Together, the instrumental methods and approaches to data analysis described allowed for the identification of 110 abundant chemical species detected in urine. / Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Canadian Foundation for Innovation

Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Cognitive Radio (CR) are entering mainstream. These high performance and high adaptability requiring devices with agile frequency operations hold promise to :1. address the inconsistency between hardware and software advancements, 2. real time mode switching from one radio configuration to another and3. efficient spectrum management in under-utilized spectrum bands. Framed within this statement, in this thesis we have implemented a SDR waveform on 16 Processing Element (PE) Network on chip (NoC) based general purpose Multiprocessors System on chip (MPSoC), with access to four external DDR2 memory banks, which is implemented on a single chip Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA. We shifted short term development of a waveform into software domain by designing an efficient parallelization and synchronization strategy for each waveform component, individually. We enhance our designed waveform functionality by proposing and implementing three Artificial Neural Networks Schemes : Self Organizing Maps, Linear Vector Quantization and Multi-Layer Perceptrons as effective techniques for reconfiguring CR Transceiver after recognizing the specific standard based on input parameters, pertaining to different layers, extracted from the signal. Our proposed adaptive solution switches to appropriate Artificial Neural Network, based on the features of input signal sensed. We designed an efficient synchronization and parallelization strategy to implement the Artificial Neural Networks based CR Transceiver Algorithms on the aforementioned MPSoC chip. The speed up we obtained for our SDR waveform and CR Transceiver algorithms demonstrated that the general purpose MPSoC devices are the most efficient answer to the acquisition challenge for major organizations that invest or plan to invest in SDR and CR based devices, thereby allowing us to avoid expensive hardware accelerators. We address the case of a complex signal composed of many modulated carriers by dividing the PEs in individual groups, thus received signal with more than one Standard is processed efficiently. We add further functionality in our designed Multi-standard CR Transceiver possessing SDR Waveform by proposing a new approach for radio spectrum management, perhaps the most important aspect of CR. We make our designed waveform Spectrum efficient by modelling the primary user signal Radio Frequency features as a multivariate time series, which is then given as input to Elman Recurrent Neural Network that predicts the evolution of Radio Frequency Time Series to decide if the secondary user can exploit the Spectrum band. We exploit the inherent cyclostationary in primary signals for Non-linear Autoregressive Exogenous Time Series Modeling of Radio Frequency features, as predicting one RF feature needs the previous knowledge of other relevant RF features. We observe a similar trend between predicted and actual values. Ensemble, our designed Spectrum Efficient SDR waveform with a Universal Multi-standard Transceiver answers the SDR and CR performance requirements under resource constraints by efficient algorithm design and implementation using lateral thinking that seeks a greater cross-domain interaction

Many phenomena in the BAEP are difficult to explain on the basis of the accepted hypothesis of its origin (after Jewett, 1970). The alternative mechanism of origin to which these phenomena point is summation of oscillations. Therefore, simulation of the BAEP by a mathematical model consisting of the addition of four sine waves was tested. The model did simulate a normal BAEP as well variations in the waveform produced by reversing click polarity. This simulation gives further clues to the origin of the BAEP. The four sine waves begin simultaneously; corresponding BAEP oscillations must, therefore, originate from a single structure. These oscillations begin in less than half a millisecond after the click. This suggests that the structure from which they arise is outside the brainstem. This alternative mechanism indicates that wave latencies do not reflect nervous conduction between discrete nuclei, and interpretation of BAEP abnormality need to be reconsidered. It also implies that mathematical frequency analysis is more appropriate, but this could be applied only when these methods have been perfected. Meanwhile, through visual analysis and recognition of oscillations, abnormality can be detected and described in terms that may have physiological significance.

The level of axial compressive load on an existing column is one of the most important parameters to be known. This thesis aims to investigate current state of the art of NDT techniques, their application, and investigate alternative ways of using current technology to estimate the axial compressive load on columns. For this purpose, transverse vibration technique, ultrasonic pulse velocity method, and waveform and frequency content evaluation of ultrasound are investigated and implemented. Analytical and experimental studies on column transverse vibration frequency and axial load relationship are conducted and presented. The measured experimental lateral vibration frequency of the first bending mode decreased under increased axial compressive load as expected from analytical studies. Relationships between axial load and vibration frequency are derived and defined for different boundary conditions. Relationship charts are prepared for complicated solution sets. Numerical calculations, laboratory and field tests revealed that natural frequencies of slender columns are more sensitive to axial load changes. The available ultrasonic methods are investigated and described. Stress wave propagation in anisotropic solids is studied. Previous works have shown that the propogation velocity of stress waves depends on the density, Poisson&rsquo / s ratio, modulus of elasticity of the medium, and the state of stress. The orientation of the loading direction to the wave propogation direction, the couplant (ultrasonic transmission gel) uniformity, variability in the pressure applied to hold the transducers, alignment of the transmitting and recieving transducers, accuracy and modelling of Poisson&rsquo / s ratio make the ultrasonic testing more complicated.

In variable speed motor drive and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications, taditional method is to employ some kind of a modulation technique at a high frequency typically 6 kHz to 20 kHz range. In these modulation techniques, the switches are hard switched. The result is application of a series of pulses to the load, and if the load is inductive, sine wave current flows into the load. Hard and rapid switching causes a voltage waveform with a very high dv/dt (rate of change in voltage) causing high EMI problems, reduced life expectancy of the motor and additional losses. So a power supply generating pure sinusoidal voltage waveform is very desirable. In industry some low pass filters called sinusoidal filters, are used at the output of the inverters but this comes with additional cost and bulky filter elements. In this study, a novel approach for generating power level sinusoidal waveforms is proposed. The basic structure is a DC-DC converter that produces a rectified DC-link at its output and an H-bridge inverter that inverts the rectified sinusoids to form a sinusoidal voltage. Main advantages of the circuit are that the H-bridge inverter switches have no switching stresses, they are switched at low frequency so the reliability is increased. Throughout the study different circuit topologies have been investigated and the analysis of the chosen topologies is supported with computer simulations. The system is then set up in the laboratory. In order to prove of the concept, only a single phase inverter has been investigated at steady state conditions. Efficiency, distortion level, magnitude error and device stresses have been obtained. The results indicate that the proposed configuration is very promising.

A novel approach to optical pulse shaping and arbitrary waveform generation (OAWG) using time-domain spectral shaping (TDSS) in negative and positive dispersion in commercial optical fibers has been proposed and evaluated. In order to study the pulse shaping capability of this OAWG system, mathematical analysis was used to determine expressions for the expected output waveform under certain assumptions. Then, Matlab code was developed to model the propagation of an optical signal through a fiber with arbitrary characteristics as well as optical modulation using an electro-optic modulator. The code was first benchmarked to several well-known theoretical systems to ensure that it produced accurate results, and then it was used to examine the ability of this novel OAWG approach to generate different waveforms under various conditions. The results of numerous simulations are presented and used to qualitatively examine the ability of this system to perform OAWG in a real-world setting. Based on the results of simulations, mathematical modeling, as well as previous research in this area, it was determined that higher-order fiber dispersion could be a limitation to the time-bandwidth product and pulse shaping fidelity of this pulse shaping method. Additional dispersion compensation techniques were devised to help overcome these limitations such as the use of multiple dispersion-compensating fibers and spectral phase modulation. An OAWG system employing these techniques was also simulated using the developed Matlab code. Using these results, the possibility and feasibility of employing this system in various pulse shaping applications such as optical communications, are discussed and analyzed. Limitations of the system are also investigated, and methods to improve the system for future applications are suggested.

Η παρακολούθηση του ρεύματος διαρροής, και ειδικά της κυματομορφής του, είναι μια ευρύτατα διαδεδομένη τεχνική για την παρακολούθηση της επιφανειακής δραστηριότητας και κατάστασης των μονωτήρων υψηλής τάσης. Η παρακολούθηση στο πεδίο είναι απαραίτητη για να υπάρξει μια πιστή καταγραφή της δραστηριότητας και συμπεριφοράς σε πραγματικές συνθήκες, παρουσιάζει όμως σημαντικές δυσκολίες. Το πρόβλημα συνήθως παρακάμπτεται με την καταγραφή και μελέτη εξαγόμενων μεγεθών όπως η τιμή κορυφής και το φορτίο, μία προσέγγιση που οδηγεί όμως σε αμφίβολα αποτελέσματα. Η παρούσα διατριβή επικεντρώνεται στην διερεύνηση και ταξινόμηση κυματομορφών ρεύματος διαρροής καταγεγραμμένων στο πεδίο. Αρχικά, παρατίθεται μια λεπτομερής ανασκόπηση της καταγραφής και ανάλυσης ρεύματος διαρροής σε εργαστηριακές και πραγματικές συνθήκες. Στην συνέχεια, περιγράφεται το πεδίο μετρήσεων, δύο Υποσταθμοί Υψηλής Τάσης 150kV, το αναπτυχθέν λογισμικό αλλά και ο Υπαίθριος Σταθμός Δοκιμών όπου πρόκειται να αξιοποιηθούν τα αποτελέσματα. Μελετώνται περισσότερες από 100.000 κυματομορφές, που έχουν καταγραφεί σε μια περίοδο που ξεπερνάει τα δέκα έτη. Εξετάζεται και αξιολογείται το πρόβλημα του θορύβου και ταυτοποιούνται τρεις διαφορετικοί τύποι θορύβου. Εξετάζεται η επίδρασή τους στο πρόβλημα συσσώρευσης δεδομένων αλλά και στην ποιότητα της εξαγόμενης πληροφορίας. Για την αντιμετώπιση του προβλήματος εφαρμόζονται και αξιολογούνται τρεις διαφορετικές τεχνικές. Για την περαιτέρω ταξινόμησή των κυματομορφών που απεικονίζουν δραστηριότητα, χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορες τεχνικές επεξεργασίας σήματος, εξαγωγής και επιλογής χαρακτηριστικών καθώς και αναγνώρισης προτύπων όπως η Wavelet Multi-Resolution Ανάλυση, η Ανάλυση Fourier, τα Νευρωνικά Δίκτυα, το t-test, ο αλγόριθμος mRMR, ο αλγόριθμος κ-πλησιέστερων γειτόνων, ο απλός Μπεϋζιανός ταξινομητής και οι Μηχανές Διανυσμάτων Υποστήριξης. Συγκεντρωτικά, δίνεται μια συνολική εικόνα των διαφορετικών ζητημάτων που σχετίζονται με την παρακολούθηση του ρεύματος διαρροής. Παρατίθεται μια πλήρης εικόνα των κυματομορφών όπως αυτές καταγράφονται σε πραγματικές συνθήκες, υπογραμμίζοντας ιδιαιτερότητες που σχετίζονται με την φύση της εφαρμογής. Εφαρμόζονται και αξιολογούνται νέες προσεγγίσεις για την ταξινόμηση των κυματομορφών. Τα συνολικά αποτελέσματα προσφέρουν σημαντική ενίσχυση στην αποτελεσματικότητα της τεχνικής της παρακολούθησης του ρεύματος διαρροής, συμβάλλοντας σημαντικά στην μελέτη της επιφανειακής δραστηριότητας και συμπεριφοράς των μονωτήρων υψηλής τάσης. / Leakage current monitoring is a widely applied technique for monitoring surface activity and condition of high voltage insulators. Field monitoring is necessary to acquire an exact image of activity and performance in the field. However, recording, managing and interpreting leakage current waveforms, the shape of which is correlated to surface activity, is a major task. The problem is commonly by-passed with the extraction, recording and investigation of values related to peak and charge, an approach reported to produce questionable results. The present thesis focuses on the investigation and classification of field leakage current waveforms. At first, a detailed background of measuring and analyzing leakage current both in lab and field conditions is provided. Then, the monitoring sites, two 150kV Substations, as well as the developed custom-made software and the newly constructed High Voltage Test Station where the results of this thesis are to be implemented, is briefly described. More than 100.000 waveforms are investigated, recorded through a period exceeding ten years. Field related noise is thoroughly described and evaluated. Three different types of noise are identified and their impact on the size of accumulated data and on data interpretation is investigated. Three different techniques to overcome the problem are applied and evaluated. Activity portraying waveforms are further investigated. Further classification of activity portraying waveforms is performed employing signal processing, feature extraction and selection algorithms as well as pattern recognition techniques such as Wavelet Multi-Resolution Analysis, Fourier Analysis, Neural Networks (NNs), student’s t-test, minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR), k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), Naive Bayesian Classifier and Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Overall results provide a full image of the various aspects of field leakage current monitoring. A detailed image of field waveforms, revealing several new attributes, is documented. New approaches for the classification of leakage current waveforms are introduced, applied on field waveforms and evaluated. Results described in this thesis significantly enhance the effectiveness of the leakage current monitoring technique, providing a powerful tool for the investigation of surface activity and performance of high voltage insulators.

L'inversion des formes d'onde (full waveform inversion, FWI) a suscité un intérêt dans le monde entier pour sa capacité à estimer de manière précise et détaillée les propriétés physiques du sous-sol. La FWI est généralement formulée sous la forme d'un problème d'ajustement des données par moindres carrés et résolus par une approche linéarisée utilisant des méthodes d'optimisation locales. Cependant, la FWI est bien connue de souffrir du problème de saut de phase rendant les résultats fortement dépendant de la qualité des modèles initiaux. L'inversion des formes d'ondes des arrivées réfléchies (reflection waveform inversion, RWI) a récemment été proposée pour atténuer ce problème en supposant une séparation d'échelle entre le modèle de vitesse lisse et le modèle de réflectivité à haut nombre d'onde. La formulation de RWI considère explicitement les ondes réfléchies afin d'extraire de ces ondes une information sur les variations lisses de vitesse des zones profondes. Cependant, la méthode néglige les ondes transmises qui contraignant les informations lisses de vitesse en proche surface.Dans cette thèse, une étude de la sensibilité en nombre d'ondes des méthodes de FWI et RWI a d'abord été revisitée dans le cadre de la tomographie en diffraction et des décompositions orthogonales. A partir de cette analyse, je propose une nouvelle méthode, à savoir l'inversion jointe des formes d'ondes transmises et réfléchies (joint full waveform inversion, JFWI). La méthode propose une formulation unifiée pour combiner la FWI des transmissions et la RWI pour les réflexions, donnant naturellement une sensibilité commune aux petits nombres d'onde venant des arrivées grand-angle et réfléchies. Les composantes à hauts nombres d'onde sont naturellement atténuées par la formulation. Pour satisfaire l'hypothèse de séparation d'échelle, j'utilise une paramétrisation du sous-sol basée sur la vitesse des ondes de compression et l'impédance acoustique. La complexité temporelle de cette approche est le double de la méthode de FWI classique et la requête mémoire reste la même.Une procédure d'inversion est ensuite proposée, permettant d'estimer alternativement le modèle de la vitesse du sous-sol par JFWI et l'impédance inversion de formes d'ondes réfléchies. Un exemple synthétique réaliste du modèle de Valhall est d'abord utilisé avec des données de streamer et à partir d'un modèle initial très lisse. Dans ce cadre, alors que la FWI converge vers un minimum local, la JFWI réussit à reconstruire un modèle de vitesse lisse de bonne qualité. La prise en compte des ondes tournante par la JFWI montre un fort intérêt pour la qualité de reconstruction superficielle, comparée à la méthode RWI seule. Cela se traduit ensuite par une reconstruction améliorée en profondeur. Le modèle de vitesse lisse construit par JFWI peut ensuite être considéré comme modèle initial pour la FWI classique, afin d'injecter le contenu en haut nombres d'onde tout en évitant le problème de saut de phase.Les avantages et limites de l'approche de JFWI sont ensuite étudiés dans une application sur données réelles, venant d'un profil 2D de données de fond de mer (OBC) recoupant un nuage de gaz au dessus d'un réservoir. Plusieurs modèles initiaux et stratégies d'inversion sont testés afin de minimiser le problème de saut de phase, tout en construisant des modèles de sous-sol avec une résolution suffisante. Sous réserve de mettre en œuvre des stratégies limitant le problème de saut de phase, la JFWI montre qu'elle peut produire un modèle de vitesse acceptable, injectant les bas nombres d'onde dans le modèle de vitesse. L'amélioration de l'éclairage en angles de diffraction fournie par des acquisitions 3D devrait permettre de pouvoir commencer l'inversion par JFWI à partir de modèle encore moins bien définis. / Full waveform inversion (FWI) has attracted worldwide interest for its capacity to estimate the physical properties of the subsurface in details. It is often formulated as a least-squares data-fitting procedure and routinely solved by linearized optimization methods. However, FWI is well known to suffer from cycle skipping problem making the final estimations strongly depend on the user-defined initial models. Reflection waveform inversion (RWI) is recently proposed to mitigate such cycle skipping problem by assuming a scale separation between the background velocity and high-wavenumber reflectivity. It explicitly considers reflected waves such that large-wavelength variations of deep zones can be extracted at the early stage of inversion. Yet, the large-wavelength information of the near surface carried by transmitted waves is neglected.In this thesis, the sensitivity of FWI and RWI to subsurface wavenumbers is revisited in the frame of diffraction tomography and orthogonal decompositions. Based on this analysis, I propose a new method, namely joint full waveform inversion (JFWI), which combines the transmission-oriented FWI and RWI in a unified formulation for a joint sensitivity to low wavenumbers from wide-angle arrivals and short-spread reflections. High-wavenumber components are naturally attenuated during the computation of model updates. To meet the scale separation assumption, I also use a subsurface parameterization based on compressional velocity and acoustic impedance. The temporal complexity of this approach is twice of FWI and the memory requirement is the same.An integrated workflow is then proposed to build the subsurface velocity and impedance models in an alternate way by JFWI and waveform inversion of the reflection data, respectively. In the synthetic example, JFWI is applied to a streamer seismic data set computed in the synthetic Valhall model, the large-wavelength characteristics of which are missing in the initial 1D model. While FWI converges to a local minimum, JFWI succeeds in building a reliable velocity macromodel. Compared with RWI, the involvement of diving waves in JFWI improves the reconstruction of shallow velocities, which translates into an improved imaging at greater depths. The smooth velocity model built by JFWI can be subsequently taken as the initial model for conventional FWI to inject high-wavenumber content without obvious cycle skipping problems.The main promises and limitations of the approach are also reviewed in the real-data application on the 2D OBC profile cross-cutting gas cloud.Several initial models and offset-driven strategies are tested with the aim to manage cycle skipping while building subsurface models with sufficient resolution. JFWI can produce an acceptable velocity model provided that the cycle skipping problem is mitigated and sufficient low-wavenumber content is recovered at the early stage of inversion. Improved scattering-angle illumination provided by 3D acquisitions would allow me to start from cruder initial models.

xiv, 103 p. : ill. (some col.) / Results from a recent mid-ocean ridge tomography study along the fast-spreading, northern East Pacific Rise (EPR) reveal that the axis of mantle upwelling beneath the ridge is skewed with respect to the spreading axis, giving rise to regions of both rise-centered and off-axis mantle melt accumulation. Here, we investigate the effects of off-axis melt accumulation on the architecture of overlying crust as well as off-axis melt delivery on crustal construction along the ridge axis. We first present evidence for off-axis magmatism 20 km from the spreading center in 300-ka-old crust overlying a region of off-axis melt supply. Seismic data reveal an intrusive complex ∼2 km beneath the seafloor that is limited in lateral extent (<5 km) and comprises a melt lens underlain by low-velocity, high-attenuation crust, which provides the necessary conditions to drive off-axis volcanic and hydrothermal activity. We next present results from thermodynamic modeling that show systematic, along-axis variations in the depth of crystallization and degree of differentiation of magma produce crustal density variations of ∼0.1 g/cm 3 . These density anomalies are on the order inferred from a recent study that shows increasing axial depth along the northern EPR correlates with an increase in crustal density and offset of mantle upwelling with respect to the ridge axis. Our results, along with geophysical and geochemical data from the 9°-10°N region of the EPR, suggest that along-axis deeps correspond with magmatic systems that have significant near-Moho (i.e., crust-mantle transition) crystallization, which we attribute to off-axis delivery of mantle melt. As this investigation is motivated by the EPR tomography results, we conclude with a numerical study that examines the travel time sensitivity of Pn , a sub-crustal head wave commonly used in local travel time tomography, to crustal and mantle heterogeneity. Our results indicate that Pn travel times and Fresnel zones are insensitive to normal sub-axial crustal thickness anomalies, mantle velocity gradients and crust-mantle velocity contrast variations and that mantle low-velocity zones must be at least 3 km thick to produce significant, near-constant Pn delay times. Our data support the validity and interpretation of the EPR tomography results. This dissertation includes both previously published and unpublished co-authored material. / Committee in charge: Dr. Douglas R. Toomey, Chairperson; Dr. Paul J. Wallace, Member; Dr. Eugene Humphreys, Member; Dr. James Isenberg, Outside Member