L'ingénierie logicielle doit faire face à un besoin toujours croissant en évolutivité des systèmes informatiques pour faciliter leur maintenance et de manière générale leur administration. Cependant, l'évolution d'un système, et plus spécifiquement l'évolution dynamique, ne doit pas se faire au dépend de sa fiabilité, c'est à dire de sa capacité à délivrer correctement les fonctionnalités attendues au cours de sa vie. En effet, des modifications dans un système peuvent laisser ce dernier dans un état incohérent et donc remettre en cause son caractère fiable. L'objectif de cette thèse est de garantir la fiabilité des reconfigurations dynamiques utilisées pour faire évoluer les systèmes pendant leur exécution tout en préservant leur disponibilité, c'est à dire leur continuité de service. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement aux systèmes à base de composants logiciels, potentiellement distribués, dont l'architecture peut être le support de reconfigurations dynamiques non anticipées et concurrentes. Nous proposons une définition de la cohérence des configurations et des reconfigurations dans le modèle de composants Fractal à travers une modélisation basée sur des contraintes d'intégrité tels que des invariants structurels. La fiabilité des reconfigurations est garantie par une approche transactionnelle permettant à la fois de réaliser du recouvrement d'erreurs et de gérer la concurrence des reconfigurations dans les applications. Nous proposons enfin une architecture à composants modulaire pour mettre en oeuvre nos mécanismes transactionnels adaptés aux reconfigurations dynamiques dans des applications à base de composants Fractal.

<p>Behaviour occurs in time, and precise timing in the range of seconds and fractions of seconds is for most living organisms necessary for successful interaction with the environment. Our ability to time discrete actions and to predict events on the basis of prior events indicates the existence of an internal timing mechanism. The nature of this mechanism provides essential constraints on models of the functional organisation of the brain. </p><p>The present work indicates that there are discontinuities in the function of time close to 1 s and 1.4 s, both in the amount of drift in a series of produced intervals (Study I) and in the detectability of drift in a series of sounds (Study II). The similarities across different tasks further suggest that action and perceptual judgements are governed by the same (kind of) mechanism. Study III showed that series of produced intervals could be characterised by different amounts of positive fractal dependency related to the aforementioned discontinuities. </p><p>In conjunction with other findings in the literature, these results suggest that timing of intervals up to a few seconds is strongly dependent on previous intervals and on the duration to be timed. This argues against a clock-counter mechanism, as proposed by scalar timing theory, according to which successive intervals are random and the size of the timing error conforms to Weber's law. </p><p>A functional model is proposed, expressed in an autoregressive framework, which consists of a single-interval timer with error corrective feedback. The duration-specificity of the proposed model is derived from the order of error correction, as determined by a semi-flexible temporal integration span. </p>

Research on multiple antenna systems has been a hot topic in recent years due to the demands for higher transmission rate and more reliable link in rich scattering environment in wireless communications. Using multiple antennas at both the transmitter side and the receiver side increases the channel capacity without additional frequency spectrum and transmitted power. However, due to the limited space at the size-limited terminal devices, the most critical problem in designing multiple antennas is the severe mutual coupling among them. The aim of this thesis is to provide compact, decoupled and efficient multiple antenna designs for terminal devices. At the same time, we propose a simple and cost effective method in multiple antenna measurement. All these efforts contribute to the development of terminal devices for the fourth generation wireless communication. The background and theory of multiple antenna systems are introduced first, in which three operating schemes of multiple antenna systems are discussed. Critical factors influencing the performance of multiple antenna systems are also analyzed in details. To design efficient multiple antenna systems in compact terminals, several decoupling methods, including defected ground plane, current localization, orthogonal polarization and decoupling networks, are proposed. The working mechanism and design procedure of each method are introduced, and their effectiveness is compared. Those methods can be applied to most of the terminal antennas, reducing the mutual coupling by at least 6dB. In some special cases, especially for low frequency bands below 1GHz, the chassis of the device itself radiates like an antenna, which complicates the antenna decoupling. Thus, we extend the general decoupling methods to the cases when the chassis is excited. Based on the characteristic mode analysis, three different solutions are provided, i.e., optimizing antenna locations, localizing antenna currents and creating orthogonal modes. These methods are applied to mobile phones, providing a more reliable link and a higher transmission rate, which are evaluated by diversity gain and channel capacity, respectively. In order to measure the performance of multiple antenna systems, it is necessary to obtain the correlation coefficients. However, the traditional measurement technique, which requires the phase and polarization information of the radiation patterns, is very expensive and time consuming. In this thesis, a more practical and convenient method is proposed. Fairly good accuracy is achieved when it is applied to various kinds of antennas. To design a compact and efficient multiple antenna system, besides the reduction of mutual coupling, the performance of each single antenna is also important. The techniques for antenna reconfiguration are demonstrated. Frequency and pattern reconfigurable antennas are constructed, providing more flexibility to multiple antenna systems. / QC 20120604

Behaviour occurs in time, and precise timing in the range of seconds and fractions of seconds is for most living organisms necessary for successful interaction with the environment. Our ability to time discrete actions and to predict events on the basis of prior events indicates the existence of an internal timing mechanism. The nature of this mechanism provides essential constraints on models of the functional organisation of the brain. The present work indicates that there are discontinuities in the function of time close to 1 s and 1.4 s, both in the amount of drift in a series of produced intervals (Study I) and in the detectability of drift in a series of sounds (Study II). The similarities across different tasks further suggest that action and perceptual judgements are governed by the same (kind of) mechanism. Study III showed that series of produced intervals could be characterised by different amounts of positive fractal dependency related to the aforementioned discontinuities. In conjunction with other findings in the literature, these results suggest that timing of intervals up to a few seconds is strongly dependent on previous intervals and on the duration to be timed. This argues against a clock-counter mechanism, as proposed by scalar timing theory, according to which successive intervals are random and the size of the timing error conforms to Weber's law. A functional model is proposed, expressed in an autoregressive framework, which consists of a single-interval timer with error corrective feedback. The duration-specificity of the proposed model is derived from the order of error correction, as determined by a semi-flexible temporal integration span.

L'agglomération humide est une étape cruciale dans la technologie de mise en forme des poudres de par son fort impact sur la qualité finale des produits élaborés. Malgré son intérêt lors de l'élaboration de nombreux produits (aliment, pharmaceutique, génie civil,...), ainsi que les différents modes technologiques (malaxeurs horizontaux, verticaux, à faible ou fort de taux de cisaillement, lit fluidisé, ...), elle reste insuffisamment maîtrisée de par la difficulté à proposer des diagrammes de fonctionnement opérationnels qui couplent les contributions croisées des procédés et des produits. Ce travail de thèse s'inscrit dans cette problématique et porte sur l'étude des mécanismes d'agglomération en lien avec les caractéristiques de la formulation et les paramètres opératoires. L'identification et la représentation du mode d'assemblage des particules au cours de l'opération de mouillage/malaxage est l'un des enjeux central de ce travail. A partir d'expériences menées avec deux types de poudres alimentaires (semoule de blé dur et poudre de lait), l'agglomération est induite soit par contacts humides en malaxeur à faible taux de cisaillement soit par des collisions entre les particules collantes en lit fluidisé. Les mécanismes d'agglomération humide de la semoule de blé dur développés dans un malaxeur à faible cisaillement sont décrits selon un processus de morphogénèse qui corrèle la taille des agglomérats à leur texture via une dimension fractale. L'influence des propriétés physicochimiques des liants liquides sur les mécanismes d'agglomération est étudiée au regard des paramètres du modèle fractal. L'étude fine des distributions des propriétés hydrotexturales et dimensionnelles des structures agglomérées a permis d'identifier leur " règle " d'agencement : association par même classe hydro-texturale et dimensionnelle. Les régimes d'agglomération en fonction du mode d'apport d'eau (débit faible, débit fort) sont étudiés en se basant sur la notion de flux d'atomisation adimensionné. En ce qui concerne l'agglomération de la poudre de lait en lit fluidisé, les mécanismes d'agglomération sont étudiés en suivant l'évolution des tailles et des teneurs en eau des échantillons prélevés durant l'opération de mouillage/séchage et par la suite l'étude de l'impact de certaines conditions opératoires et de formulation sur les propriétés des agglomérats finaux et les régimes d'agglomération. Un lien entre les procédés est discuté et ouvre sur une requalification des régimes d'écoulement granulaire ainsi que de la réactivité de surface des particules.

Les images naturelles sont des structures complexes. Leur modélisation est essentielle à de nombreuses tâches en traitement d'images, et des progrès restent encore à réaliser dans ce sens. Des propriétés d'autosimilarité en échelle ont été observées dans l'organisation spatiale des images naturelles. Au-delà de leur organisation spatiale, nous abordons ici leur organisation colorimétrique. Différents outils de caractérisation fractale sont identifiés et mis en oeuvre. L'application de ces outils sur les histogrammes tridimensionnels des images couleur nous permet de mettre en évidence, et de caractériser, des propriétés fractales dans leur organisation colorimétrique. Par ailleurs, nous abordons aussi, en synthèse d'images, de nouvelles applications des concepts fractals pour les images couleur, le contrôle de leurs propriétés et la génération automatique de motifs décoratifs. Des collaborations applicatives ont été développées durant la thèse en vue de valoriser ces travaux, notamment dans le cadre du dispositif de doctorant-conseil, et en direction de l'industrie du textile-habillement.

This thesis presents diverse theoretical and practical applications of the ERS 1/2 and RADARSAT satellite images of the Synthetic Aperture Radar SAR sensor (near 330 images in the Northwest Mediterranean NWM and 980 in European coastal waters) Other types of satellite images were used to study the marine pollution and dynamics studies of the NWM and other European areas. Principal source of information constitutes a collection of the SAR images obtained on periodic form during the 1996-1998 years generally by the Clean Seas European project, also by the Oil Watch and the ERS-1/2 SAR Exploitation Study in Catalonia projects. The geographical area of interest includes the NWM maritime zone: Balearic Islands - Ebro Delta - Cap of Creus - Gulf of Leon - Marseilles - Balearic Islands. During the presents studies there we elaborated a thematic collection of the SAR (full and detailed fragments) images of the almost 300 oil spills and of the 42 coastal plumes detected in the NWM in the period 1996-1998 also thematic maps and the statistical analysis of their topologic characteristics and of their temporary/spatial occurrences were elaborated. The area of the all accidental spills and plumes that took place in the period 1996-1998 in the NWM was also estimated (the diameter is 146 km and it oil mass is 4.477 Tm), we made a comparative analysis of the results of the Clean Seas project from different zones of studies (NWM, North Sea, Baltic Sea) and the statistical analysis of the occurrence of disasters involving oil spills in European waters in base of the results of the present work and of the historical information of the past 34 years, relating them to Zipf's law. The general conclusion is that the small habitual oil spills play a significant role in the overall marine pollution due to its very frequent occurrence.In the area of study of the dynamics of the NWM we present the results of the topologic and spatial analysis of the vortices detected by the satellite sensors, the thematic maps, the comparison with the laboratory experiments, the quantitative analysis of the particularities of tide in different points of the NWM, the examples of the application of the multifractal analysis and also a practical method proposed in order to distinguish the sea surface structures of different origins.The obtained results have allowed to obtain a general and statistically justified vision of the level of the marine pollution of the NWM, as well as in other European maritime zones. It was also possible to obtain quantitative information on the complex superficial dynamics of the NWM, which can be useful to quantify the capacity of surface diffusion of the ocean. / PER NAVEGAR ENTRE ELS FITXERS D'AQUESTA TESI PARTIU DEL FITXER: inicio.pdfPARA NAVEGAR ENTRE LOS FICHEROS DE ÉSTA TESIS PARTIR DEL FICHERO: inicio.pdfTHE FIRST FILE IS inicio.pdf

This paper analyzes two main frameworks that challenge the “mainstream” finance theory and the random walk hypothesis. The first framework is based on investor irrationality and is called Behavioural Finance. The second framework views the financial market as a chaotic system and is called Fractal Theory of a financial market. Behavioural Finance attacks the assumption of investor rationality, thus challenging the conventional finance theories on the micro level. Fractal Theory challenges the EMH and the “macroeconomics” of finance. This paper presents a step towards unifying the frameworks of Behavioural Finance and Fractal Theory. After a review of the relevant literature, a model of the financial market is suggested that rests on the predictions of both Behavioural Finance and Fractal Theory. As a next step, a mathematical algorithm is described that allows to test the financial market for consistency with the presented model. The mathematical algorithm is applied to 10 years of daily S&amp;P500 price quotes, and consistent statistical evidence shows that the predicted fractal pattern reveals itself in the S&amp;P500 prices. The new model outperforms the random walk in out-of-sample forecasting.

In this thesis study, a new method for automatic recognition of intrapulse modulations has been proposed. This new method deals the problem of modulation recognition with a feature-based approach. The features used to recognize the modulation type are Instantaneous Frequency, Instantaneous Bandwidth, Amplitude Modulation Depth, Box Dimension and Information Dimension. Instantaneous Bandwidth and Instantaneous Frequency features are extracted via Autoregressive Spectrum Modeling. Amplitude Modulation Depth is used to express the depth of amplitude change on the signal. The other features, Box Dimension and Information Dimension, are extracted using Fractal Theory in order to classify the modulations on signals depending on their shapes. A modulation database is used in association with Fractal Theory to decide on the modulation type of the analyzed signal, by means of a distance metric among fractal dimensions. Utilizing these features in a hierarchical flow, the new modulation recognition method is achieved. The proposed method has been tested for various intrapulse modulation types. It has been observed that the method has acceptably good performance even for low SNR cases and for signals with small PW.

Fractal is a recursively-generated object describing a family of complex shapes that possess an inherent self-similarity in their geometrical structure. When used in antenna engineering, fractal geometries provide multi-band characteristics and lowering resonance frequencies by enhancing the space filling property. Moreover, utilizing fractal arrays, controlling side lobe-levels and radiation patterns can be realized. In this thesis, the performance of Koch curve as antenna is investigated. Since fractals are complex shapes, there is no well&ndash / established for mathematical formulation to obtain the radiation properties and frequency response of Koch Curve antennas directly. The Koch curve antennas became famous since they exhibit better frequency response than their Euclidean counterparts. The effect of the parameters of Koch geometry to antenna performance is studied in this thesis. Moreover, modified Koch geometries are generated to obtain the relation between fractal properties and antenna radiation and frequency characteristics.