With sales reaching $4.4 billion dollars in the first half of 2006 in the United States alone, and an estimated 80% of the world receiving coverage for their wireless phones in that year, interest in these devices as more than mere communicators has greatly increased. In the mid-to-late 1990s, digital cameras began to be incorporated into cellphones, followed shortly thereafter by Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware allowing location-based services to be offered to customers. Since then the use of mobile phone hardware for non-communication purposes has continued to expand. Some models, such as the Motorola V3M, have been specifically geared toward the storage and display of music and visual media, as well as receiving Internet broadcasts. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that relatively little has been done from an academic standpoint to provide a qualitative and comprehensive method of evaluating the performance of mobile phones regarding their ability to function as computing devices. While some manuals do offer comparisons of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that aid in the development of cellphone applications, little documentation exists to provide objective measurements of performance parameters. This dissertation proposes a framework for evaluating the performance of mobile phones from a computational angle, focusing on three criteria: the processing power of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), data transfer capabilities, and the performance of the phone's GPS functionality for the appropriation of geographic location data. Power consumption has always been a major source of interest in the study of computer systems, and the limited hardware resources of mobile devices such as laptop computers, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) and cellular telephones makes this a key concern. The power consumption factors associated with operation are therefore considered alongside the three core criteria being studied in this framework. In addition to framework design, software tools for the evaluation of cellphones were also developed, and these were applied to a test case of the Sanyo SCP-7050 model. This provides an example of the utility of the framework in evaluating existing phone models and a foundation for the assessment of new models as they are released.

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse concerne l'analyticité et l'algébricité d'applications de Cauchy-Riemann (CR) lisse entre variétés CR analytiques ou algébriques réelles. Ce sujet a trait aux propriétés de prolongement d'applications et a récemment connu un regain d'activité. Notre contribution porte principalement sur l'étude du cas non équidimensionnel et sur le passage à la codimension supérieure à un. Dans la première partie de la thèse, nous considérons la question de l'algébricité d'une application holomorphe locale f envoyant une sous-variété algébrique réelle générique minimale M de Cn, n > 1, dans un sous-ensemble algébrique réel M' de Cn'. Ce problème a pour origine les travaux de Poincaré (1907), et plus récemment de Webster (1977). L'introduction de "variétés caractéristiques" associées à la fois aux ensembles M et M' et à l'application f nous permet de donner deux nouvelles conditions pour que f soit algébrique. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous étudions le problème de l'analyticité d'une application CR lisse f : M -> M' entre une sous-variété analytique réelle générique minimale M de Cn, n>1, et un sous-ensemble analytique réel M' de Cn'. Nous établissons une généralisation du principe de réflexion de Lewy-Pinchuk (1975-77) et prouvons que si la variété caractéristique est de dimension zéro, f est analytique réelle. Dans la troisième partie de la thèse, nous traitons la situation plus générale où la variété caractéristique est de dimension arbitraire. Nous démontrons que si M' ne contient pas de courbe complexe, f est analytique sur un ouvert dense de M. Plus généralement, nous établissons une estimation supérieure de l'analyticité partielle de f, en fonction de la dimension maximale des feuilletages holomorphes locaux contenus dans M'.

Ces travaux s'inscrivent dans le cadre du projet AROS (Automotive Robust Operating Services). Il a pour objectif de proposer un outil de prototypage rapide d'applications dynamiques distribuées temps-réel, principalement dans le domaine de l'automobile et de la robotique. Les applications distribuées temps-réel sont traditionnellement développées selon deux approches. La première, l'ordonnancement temporel, est basée sur l'analyse du pire temps d'exécution (worst execution time). Un partage du temps entre les différentes tâches de l'application est établi de façon statique. Cette technique offre une grande sureté de fonctionnement au prix d'une analyse temporelle parfois difficile à mener. La seconde, l'ordonnancement par priorité, est basée sur l'attribution à chaque tâche d'un niveau de priorité qui permet d'établir l'ordre d'exécution en fonction des évènements reçus par le système. Cette seconde technique, plus souple à mettre en œuvre, offre moins de garanties et conduit à un comportement non déterministe de l'application. La structure des applications AROS étant dynamique, l'approche temporelle est exclue car elle demande une analyse statique qu'il est impossible de produire. L'approche basée sur les priorités d'exécution est également exclue à cause de son non déterminisme comportemental. Nous proposons une approche basée sur un ordonnancement évènementiel causal inspirée des techniques d'ordonnancement des simulateurs évènementiels distribués. Tout en étant relativement simple à utiliser pour le concepteur d'application, cette technique produit des applications dont le comportement est parfaitement déterministe. Deux principales difficultés sont à surmonter : la synchronisation en temps-réel du moteur d'exécution et le respect des contraintes temps-réel.

The Canadian livestock industry generates 150 million tonnes of manure annually and the majority of this manure is land applied. This practice allows the manure nutrients to be recycled to the soil crop system while improving soil fertility. However, land application of manure has the potential to negatively impact soil, water, and air quality if not managed properly. Microbial processes transform the manure nutrients into forms that are susceptible to leaching or volatilization. Balancing the nutrient loss dynamics from fertilized soil is very difficult because the nutrient transformations are affected by the soil environment such as air and water content, pH, and labile carbon content. All of these soil environmental factors can be influenced by manure application practices such as application rate, timing, and manure placement. Knowledge of how these management practices affect the soil environment can help producers make management decisions that reduce the likelihood of soil, water, and air contamination from manure application.<p> Very few data exist on how manure application practices affect odour emissions after spreading. Therefore, the efficiency of subsurface application in reducing odours from manure spreading for both solid and liquid manure was assessed. Flux chambers and dynamic dilution olfactometry were used to measure odour emissions from five livestock manure species applied at three application rates using surface and subsurface application methods. The results indicated that odour concentrations from injected plots were up to 66% (37% on average) lower than concentrations from broadcast applications. Injection seemed to have a larger impact on reducing odours from solid manure than liquid manure, mainly due to efficient manure coverage from solid manure injection. Odours measured immediately after solid manure applications were also 37% lower than from liquid manure applications. In general, odours from both manure types increased with higher application rates, but there was little difference in the odours among low, mid, and high application rates. The specific odour rate (odour emission rate per kg N applied) decreased with application rate due to the reduced surface area available for volatilization of compounds with higher application rates. Based on these results, injection of manure is an effective way to reduce the odour emissions immediately after spreading, particularly for solid manure. However, other factors associated with manure injection, such as the increased power requirement and soil disturbance must be considered when evaluating the overall impact of manure injection versus surface application.<p> The odour data collected in this study described how management practices affected odours immediately after spreading. Knowledge of how these practices affect the emission rate trend over time is required to apply dispersion models to optimize the minimum separation distances for manure spreading activities. The model parameters for an existing volatilization model were determined from field and literature data and the resulting model allowed the effects of application mode (surface vs. subsurface) and manure type (liquid vs. solid) on odour emissions for 48 hours after application to be simulated. The effects of injection depth and a coverage factor on emissions were also simulated. The modeled peak fluxes from liquid manure applications were higher than those for solid manure applications, but the extended duration of odour emissions from solid manure resulted in higher cumulative losses from solid manure applications. While the application rate had no effect on the initial odour flux, higher application rates resulted in higher peak fluxes, higher overall emissions, and longer odour durations for both manure types and application methods. Modest injection depths were shown to reduce odours from both liquid and solid manure applications compared to surface spreading. The percent reductions in cumulative odours due to injection were estimated assuming typical coverage factors. The general predictions of the model developed in this study agree reasonably well with odour emission rate trends reported in literature. Future work should focus on better estimation of the model parameters and the variation of effective diffusivity with time and soil conditions.<p> Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities such as land application of livestock manure cannot be ignored when assessing overall emissions from anthropogenic sources. Like odour emissions, the magnitude of the GHG emissions will be influenced by management practices such as manure placement during land application. The GHG fluxes resulting from the surface and subsurface application of liquid and solid manure were also compared within 24 hours of application using a static chamber and gas chromatography. The results showed that carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) fluxes were approximately three times higher from the injected plots than the surface plots for both solid and liquid manure. The elevated CO2-e fluxes were mainly due to a pronounced increase in N2O fluxes which was likely caused by increased denitrification rates. The CO2-e fluxes from the liquid manure applications were also approximately three times higher than the CO2-e fluxes from the solid manure applications, probably due to higher levels of ammonium available for nitrification and subsequent denitrification. The CH4 fluxes were generally low and the treatments had no effect. The measured specific fluxes (total flux per kg N applied) remained relatively constant with application rate, indicating that, in this study, GHG emissions from manure applications were approximately proportional to the amount of land applied manure.<p> While the data from this study showed that manure type and placement influenced short-term nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, manure management practices (particularly slurry injection or solid manure incorporation) have the potential to influence long-term emissions by changing the magnitude and pattern of the nitrogen cycle in the soil-plant system. Management practices also impact the magnitude of other nitrogen losses (ammonia volatilization, nitrate leaching) which affect indirect N2O emissions. A model that simulates the environmental conditions and nutrient transformations after manure application may allow a more reliable prediction of the effect of management practices on total GHG emissions. Numerous process-based models have been used to estimate N2O emissions as influenced by agricultural practices in Canada. However, these models do not account for enhanced denitrification that potentially exists after slurry injection or manure incorporation, resulting in an underestimation of N2O emissions. A simple mass balance of nitrogen after application to land showed that enhanced denitrification can increase total N2O-N emissions by a factor of 5. By accounting for the increased microbial activity, slower oxygen diffusion and higher water filled pore space that exists after manure injection, models may better estimate N2O emissions from manure application practices.

Future networks will face major challenges in accommodating emerging and future networked applications. These challenges include significant architecture and management issues pertaining to future networks. In this thesis, we study several of these challenges including issues such as configurability, application-awareness, rapid application-creation and deployment and scalable QoS management. To address these challenges, we propose a novel Application-Oriented Network (AON) architecture as a converged computing and communication network in which application providers are able to flexibly configure in-network resources on-demand. The resources in AON are virtualized and offered to the application providers through service-oriented approaches. To enable large-scale experimentation with future network architectures and applications, in the second part of this thesis, we present the Virtualized Application Networking Infrastructure (VANI) as a prototype of an Application-Oriented Network. VANI utilizes a service-oriented control and management plane that provides flexible and dynamic allocation, release, program and configuration of resources used for creating applications or performing network research experiments from layer three and up. Moreover, VANI resources allow development of network architectures that require a converged network of computing and communications resources such as in-network processing, storage and software and hardware-based reprogrammable resources. We also present a Distributed Ethernet Traffic Shaping (DETS) system used in bandwidth virtualization in VANI and designed to guarantee the send and receive Ethernet traffic rates in VANI, in a computing cluster or a datacenter. The third part of this thesis addresses the problem of scalable QoS and admission control in service-oriented environments where a limited number of instances of service components are shared among different application classes. We first use Markov Decision Processes to find optimal solutions to this problem. Next we present a scalable and distributed heuristic algorithm able to guarantee probability of successful completion of a composite application. The proposed algorithm does not assume a specific distribution type for services execution times and applications request inter-arrival times, and hence is suitable for systems with stationary or non-stationary request arrivals. We use simulations and experimental measurements to show the effectiveness of the proposed solutions and algorithms in various parts of this thesis.

Future networks will face major challenges in accommodating emerging and future networked applications. These challenges include significant architecture and management issues pertaining to future networks. In this thesis, we study several of these challenges including issues such as configurability, application-awareness, rapid application-creation and deployment and scalable QoS management. To address these challenges, we propose a novel Application-Oriented Network (AON) architecture as a converged computing and communication network in which application providers are able to flexibly configure in-network resources on-demand. The resources in AON are virtualized and offered to the application providers through service-oriented approaches. To enable large-scale experimentation with future network architectures and applications, in the second part of this thesis, we present the Virtualized Application Networking Infrastructure (VANI) as a prototype of an Application-Oriented Network. VANI utilizes a service-oriented control and management plane that provides flexible and dynamic allocation, release, program and configuration of resources used for creating applications or performing network research experiments from layer three and up. Moreover, VANI resources allow development of network architectures that require a converged network of computing and communications resources such as in-network processing, storage and software and hardware-based reprogrammable resources. We also present a Distributed Ethernet Traffic Shaping (DETS) system used in bandwidth virtualization in VANI and designed to guarantee the send and receive Ethernet traffic rates in VANI, in a computing cluster or a datacenter. The third part of this thesis addresses the problem of scalable QoS and admission control in service-oriented environments where a limited number of instances of service components are shared among different application classes. We first use Markov Decision Processes to find optimal solutions to this problem. Next we present a scalable and distributed heuristic algorithm able to guarantee probability of successful completion of a composite application. The proposed algorithm does not assume a specific distribution type for services execution times and applications request inter-arrival times, and hence is suitable for systems with stationary or non-stationary request arrivals. We use simulations and experimental measurements to show the effectiveness of the proposed solutions and algorithms in various parts of this thesis.

Examensarbetet har genomförts i samarbete med innovationsföretaget ProboNova Medical Innovations AB. ProboNova jobbar främst med konceptframtagning av medicintekniska produkter. ProboNova tar sedan en Provisional Patent Application på konceptet och licenserar ut det till ett större företag. Genom att licensera ut koncepten slipper de kostnaderna för kliniska tester bland annat.  Examensarbetet grundades i att ProboNova ville ha hjälp med att ta fram ett koncept på en ny sårhake. Projektet har genomsyrats av designprocessen där förstudie och idégenerering har varit de två dominerande delarna. I slutet av projektet presenterades ett koncept som uppfyllde alla krav och detta koncept togs det senare en Provisional Patent Application på.  Tanken är att examensarbetet ska ge läsaren en bättre förståelse för hur man kan jobba med designprocessen och lära sig fördelarna med att välja en Provisional Patent Application istället för en Nonprovisional ansökan. / The thesis was carried out in cooperation with the company ProboNova Medical Innovation AB. ProboNova works mainly with the concept development of medical devices. Then they take a Provisional Patent Application on the concept and licensing it out to a larger company. By licensing out the concepts they don’t have to take the costs of clinical trials for example.   The thesis was founded in that ProboNova wanted help with developing a concept on a new surgical retractor. The project has been characterized by the design process in which the feasibility studies and brainstorming has been the main parts. At the end of the project a concept was presented. The final concept met all the requirements from ProboNova and from the functional analysis that was done in the feasibility studies. A Provisional Patent Application was taken later on the final concept.    The idea is that the thesis should give the reader a better understanding of how to work with the design process, and learn the benefits of choosing a Provisional Patent Application instead of a Nonprovisional application.

The outburst of the application industry leading to the creation of com-plex applications serves as the need for a proactive approach to the implementation and monitoring of applications. Application Life-cycle Management (ALM) thus provides a conceptual framework with pre-defined steps that can help organizations successfully deploy their IT applications and adapt them to meet their changes in business needs. SAP Solution Manager is one of such ALM tools that is widely used by SAP Customers to manage their entire IT landscape, for cross-integration of application platforms thereby securing Return On Investment (ROI). The primary aim of this report is to investigate SAP Solution Manager as an Application Life-cycle Management tool, bringing out its potentials benefits and pre-senting challenges encountered by its users thus far.

The Canadian livestock industry generates 150 million tonnes of manure annually and the majority of this manure is land applied. This practice allows the manure nutrients to be recycled to the soil crop system while improving soil fertility. However, land application of manure has the potential to negatively impact soil, water, and air quality if not managed properly. Microbial processes transform the manure nutrients into forms that are susceptible to leaching or volatilization. Balancing the nutrient loss dynamics from fertilized soil is very difficult because the nutrient transformations are affected by the soil environment such as air and water content, pH, and labile carbon content. All of these soil environmental factors can be influenced by manure application practices such as application rate, timing, and manure placement. Knowledge of how these management practices affect the soil environment can help producers make management decisions that reduce the likelihood of soil, water, and air contamination from manure application.<p> Very few data exist on how manure application practices affect odour emissions after spreading. Therefore, the efficiency of subsurface application in reducing odours from manure spreading for both solid and liquid manure was assessed. Flux chambers and dynamic dilution olfactometry were used to measure odour emissions from five livestock manure species applied at three application rates using surface and subsurface application methods. The results indicated that odour concentrations from injected plots were up to 66% (37% on average) lower than concentrations from broadcast applications. Injection seemed to have a larger impact on reducing odours from solid manure than liquid manure, mainly due to efficient manure coverage from solid manure injection. Odours measured immediately after solid manure applications were also 37% lower than from liquid manure applications. In general, odours from both manure types increased with higher application rates, but there was little difference in the odours among low, mid, and high application rates. The specific odour rate (odour emission rate per kg N applied) decreased with application rate due to the reduced surface area available for volatilization of compounds with higher application rates. Based on these results, injection of manure is an effective way to reduce the odour emissions immediately after spreading, particularly for solid manure. However, other factors associated with manure injection, such as the increased power requirement and soil disturbance must be considered when evaluating the overall impact of manure injection versus surface application.<p> The odour data collected in this study described how management practices affected odours immediately after spreading. Knowledge of how these practices affect the emission rate trend over time is required to apply dispersion models to optimize the minimum separation distances for manure spreading activities. The model parameters for an existing volatilization model were determined from field and literature data and the resulting model allowed the effects of application mode (surface vs. subsurface) and manure type (liquid vs. solid) on odour emissions for 48 hours after application to be simulated. The effects of injection depth and a coverage factor on emissions were also simulated. The modeled peak fluxes from liquid manure applications were higher than those for solid manure applications, but the extended duration of odour emissions from solid manure resulted in higher cumulative losses from solid manure applications. While the application rate had no effect on the initial odour flux, higher application rates resulted in higher peak fluxes, higher overall emissions, and longer odour durations for both manure types and application methods. Modest injection depths were shown to reduce odours from both liquid and solid manure applications compared to surface spreading. The percent reductions in cumulative odours due to injection were estimated assuming typical coverage factors. The general predictions of the model developed in this study agree reasonably well with odour emission rate trends reported in literature. Future work should focus on better estimation of the model parameters and the variation of effective diffusivity with time and soil conditions.<p> Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities such as land application of livestock manure cannot be ignored when assessing overall emissions from anthropogenic sources. Like odour emissions, the magnitude of the GHG emissions will be influenced by management practices such as manure placement during land application. The GHG fluxes resulting from the surface and subsurface application of liquid and solid manure were also compared within 24 hours of application using a static chamber and gas chromatography. The results showed that carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) fluxes were approximately three times higher from the injected plots than the surface plots for both solid and liquid manure. The elevated CO2-e fluxes were mainly due to a pronounced increase in N2O fluxes which was likely caused by increased denitrification rates. The CO2-e fluxes from the liquid manure applications were also approximately three times higher than the CO2-e fluxes from the solid manure applications, probably due to higher levels of ammonium available for nitrification and subsequent denitrification. The CH4 fluxes were generally low and the treatments had no effect. The measured specific fluxes (total flux per kg N applied) remained relatively constant with application rate, indicating that, in this study, GHG emissions from manure applications were approximately proportional to the amount of land applied manure.<p> While the data from this study showed that manure type and placement influenced short-term nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, manure management practices (particularly slurry injection or solid manure incorporation) have the potential to influence long-term emissions by changing the magnitude and pattern of the nitrogen cycle in the soil-plant system. Management practices also impact the magnitude of other nitrogen losses (ammonia volatilization, nitrate leaching) which affect indirect N2O emissions. A model that simulates the environmental conditions and nutrient transformations after manure application may allow a more reliable prediction of the effect of management practices on total GHG emissions. Numerous process-based models have been used to estimate N2O emissions as influenced by agricultural practices in Canada. However, these models do not account for enhanced denitrification that potentially exists after slurry injection or manure incorporation, resulting in an underestimation of N2O emissions. A simple mass balance of nitrogen after application to land showed that enhanced denitrification can increase total N2O-N emissions by a factor of 5. By accounting for the increased microbial activity, slower oxygen diffusion and higher water filled pore space that exists after manure injection, models may better estimate N2O emissions from manure application practices.

The launch of Apple iPhone brings the success of App Store application platform, which turns the structure of mobile software industry as well as creating a brand new application business model. It changes not only environment of mobile industry and supply chains, but also the using behaviors of mobile phone users. This research applies wildscale biobligraphy analysis, case study and Delphi method, trying to analyze the market status, business model of application platform. Using 2-phase interviews with smart phone users, developers, and operator, and SWOT and Porter¡¦s Five Force Analysis model to study the business model and strategies for operator¡¦s application platform. The research discovers that telecommunication operator has serveral advantages, such as holding huge user base and payment safety; however, economic scope and service efficiency is the key to the success. Operator should use its strengths and cope with the changing user behavior to create more added value.