Since the early Eighteenth Century the significance of nectar secretion has been debated. Some have reasoned that it is reabsorbed into the plant and used as energy for the developing embryo while others believe it is a waste product which attracts pollinating insects. It has been suggested (Brink and Cooper, 1947) that the nutrient supply to developing ovules is a major factor in the development of seed. Also, alfalfa fields pollinated by pollen-collecting bees produce greater seed yields than those pollinated by nectar collectors (Bohart, Nye, and Levin, 1955). It is a well-known fact that more flowers are tripped by the pollen collectors, but it is debatable whether the nectar not taken by the pollinators has any influence on the quality or amount of seed set. It is then necessary to find whether the nectar not taken by bees is used by the plant before studies can be made to show its effect on seed and forage yields. The object of this study was to treat flowers of several families with C14 labeled sucrose and determine by the use of autoradiograms if sugars can be absorbed by nectaries, where the sugars are translocated, and when absorption takes place.

<p> Fluorescence spectroscopy has been proven to be a useful technique for the investigation of the structural, physical and solution properties of polymers. A polymer system containing a photo physical probe can be investigated using fluorescence quenching and polarization. We have randomly labeled sodium hyaluronate (HA) chains with fluorescent dyes such as 1-(1-pyrenyl)methyl amine and N-ε-dansyl-L-lysine, and studied their physical, structural and solution properties, including interactions with surfactants using the above fluorescence techniques.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

No description available.

Visual sensing in robotics, especially in the context of autonomous vehicles, has advanced quickly and many important contributions have been made in the areas of target classification. Typical to these studies is the use of the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) camera. Separately, in the field of remote sensing, the hyperspectral camera has been used to perform classification tasks on natural and man-made objects from typically aerial or satellite platforms. Hyperspectral data is characterized by a very fine spectral resolution, resulting in a significant increase in the ability to identify materials in the image. This hardware has not been studied in the context of autonomy as the sensors are large, expensive, and have non-trivial image capture times. This work presents three novel contributions: a Labeled Hyperspectral Image Dataset (LHID) of ground-level, outdoor objects based on typical scenes that a vehicle or pedestrian may encounter, an open-source hyperspectral interface software package (HSImage), and a feature selection based sensor design algorithm for object detection sensors (DLSD). These three contributions are novel and useful in the fields of hyperspectral data analysis, visual sensor design, and hyperspectral machine learning. The hyperspectral dataset and hyperspectral interface software were used in the design and testing of the sensor design algorithm. The LHID is shown to be useful for machine learning tasks through experimentation and provides a unique data source for hyperspectral machine learning. HSImage is shown to be useful for manipulating, labeling and interacting with hyperspectral data, and allows wavelength and classification based data retrieval, storage of labeling information and ambient light data. DLSD is shown to be useful for creating wavelength bands for a sensor design that increase the accuracy of classifiers trained on data from the LHID. DLSD shows accuracy near that of the full spectrum hyperspectral data, with a reduction in features on the order of 100 times. It compared favorably to other state-of-the-art wavelength feature selection techniques and exceeded the accuracy of an RGB sensor by 10%. / Ph. D. / To allow for better performance of autonomous vehicles in the complex road environment, identifying different objects in the roadway or near it is very important. Typically, cameras are used to identify objects and there has been much research into this task. However, the type of camera used is an RGB camera, the same used in consumer electronics, and it has a limited ability to identify colors. Instead, it only detects red, green, and blue and combines the results of these three measurements to simulate color. Hyperspectral cameras are specialized hardware that can detect individual colors, without having to simulate them. This study details an algorithm that will design a sensor for autonomous vehicle object identification that leverages the higher amount of information in a hyperspectral camera, but keep the simpler hardware of the RGB camera. This study presents three separate novel contributions: A database of hyperspectral images useful for tasks related to autonomous vehicles, a software tool that allows scientific study of hyperspectral images, and an algorithm that provides a sensor design that is useful for object identification. Experiments using the database show that it is useful for research tasks related to autonomous vehicles. The software tool is shown to be useful to interfacing between image files, algorithms and external software, and the sensor design algorithm is shown to be comparable to other such algorithms in accuracy, but outperforms the other algorithms in the size of the data required to complete the goal.

This thesis is concerned with multigraphs and their complexity which is defined and quantified by the distribution of edge multiplicities. Two random multigraph models are considered.  The first model is random stub matching (RSM) where the edges are formed by randomly coupling pairs of stubs according to a fixed stub multiplicity sequence. The second model is obtained by independent edge assignments (IEA) according to a common probability distribution over the edge sites. Two different methods for obtaining an approximate IEA model from an RSM model are also presented. In Paper I, multigraphs are analyzed with respect to structure and complexity by using entropy and joint information. The main results include formulae for numbers of graphs of different kinds and their complexity. The local and global structure of multigraphs under RSM are analyzed in Paper II. The distribution of multigraphs under RSM is shown to depend on a single complexity statistic. The distributions under RSM and IEA are used for calculations of moments and entropies, and for comparisons by information divergence. The main results include new formulae for local edge probabilities and probability approximation for simplicity of an RSM multigraph. In Paper III, statistical tests of a simple or composite IEA hypothesis are performed using goodness-of-fit measures. The results indicate that even for very small number of edges, the null distributions of the test statistics under IEA have distributions that are  well approximated by their asymptotic χ2-distributions. Paper IV contains the multigraph algorithms that are used for numerical calculations in Papers I-III.

Les systèmes de surveillance modernes doivent coordonner leurs stratégies d’observation pour améliorer l’information obtenue lors de leurs futures mesures afin d’estimer avec précision les états des objets d’intérêt (emplacement, vitesse, apparence, etc.). Par conséquent, la gestion adaptative des capteurs consiste à déterminer les stratégies de mesure des capteurs exploitant les informations a priori afin de déterminer les actions de détection actuelles. L’une des applications la plus connue de la gestion des capteurs est le suivi multi-objet, qui fait référence au problème de l’estimation conjointe du nombre d’objets et de leurs états ou trajectoires à partir de mesures bruyantes. Cette thèse porte sur les stratégies de gestion des capteurs en temps réel afin de résoudre le problème du suivi multi-objet dans le cadre de l’approche RFS labélisée. La première contribution est la formulation théorique rigoureuse du filtre mono-capteur LPHD avec son implémentation Gaussienne. La seconde contribution est l’extension du filtre LPHD pour le cas multi-capteurs. La troisième contribution est le développement de la méthode de gestion de capteurs basée sur la minimisation du risque Bayes et formulée dans les cadres POMDP et LRFS. En outre, des analyses et des simulations des approches de gestion de capteurs existantes pour le suivi multi-objets sont fournies / Modern surveillance systems must coordinate their observation strategies to enhance the information obtained by their future measurements in order to accurately estimate the states of objects of interest (location, velocity, appearance, etc). Therefore, adaptive sensor management consists of determining sensor measurement strategies that exploit a priori information in order to determine current sensing actions. One of the most challenging applications of sensor management is the multi-object tracking, which refers to the problem of jointly estimating the number of objects and their states or trajectories from noisy sensor measurements. This thesis focuses on real-time sensor management strategies formulated in the POMDP framework to address the multi-object tracking problem within the LRFS approach. The first key contribution is the rigorous theoretical formulation of the mono-sensor LPHD filter with its Gaussian-mixture implementation. The second contribution is the extension of the mono-sensor LPHD filter for superpositional sensors, resulting in the theoretical formulation of the multi-sensor LPHD filter. The third contribution is the development of the Expected Risk Reduction (ERR) sensor management method based on the minimization of the Bayes risk and formulated in the POMDP and LRFS framework. Additionally, analyses and simulations of the existing sensor management approaches for multi-object tracking, such as Task-based, Information-theoretic, and Risk-based sensor management, are provided.

In this thesis, we investigate some problems in graph theory, namelythe graph coloring problem, the graph packing problem and tree pattern matchingfor XML query processing. The common point between these problems is that theyuse labeled graphs.In the first part, we study a new coloring parameter of graphs called the gapvertex-distinguishing edge coloring. It consists in an edge-coloring of a graph G whichinduces a vertex distinguishing labeling of G such that the label of each vertex isgiven by the difference between the highest and the lowest colors of its adjacentedges. The minimum number of colors required for a gap vertex-distinguishing edgecoloring of G is called the gap chromatic number of G and is denoted by gap(G).We will compute this parameter for a large set of graphs G of order n and we evenprove that gap(G) 2 fn E 1; n; n + 1g.In the second part, we focus on graph packing problems, which is an area ofgraph theory that has grown significantly over the past several years. However, themajority of existing works focuses on unlabeled graphs. In this thesis, we introducefor the first time the packing problem for a vertex labeled graph. Roughly speaking,it consists of graph packing which preserves the labels of the vertices. We studythe corresponding optimization parameter on several classes of graphs, as well asfinding general bounds and characterizations.The last part deal with the query processing of a core subset of XML query languages:XML twig queries. An XML twig query, represented as a small query tree,is essentially a complex selection on the structure of an XML document. Matching atwig query means finding all the occurrences of the query tree embedded in the XMLdata tree. Many holistic twig join algorithms have been proposed to match XMLtwig pattern. Most of these algorithms find twig pattern matching in two steps. Inthe first one, a query tree is decomposed into smaller pieces, and solutions againstthese pieces are found. In the second step, all of these partial solutions are joinedtogether to generate the final solutions. In this part, we propose a novel holistictwig join algorithm, called TwigStack++, which features two main improvementsin the decomposition and matching phase. The proposed solutions are shown to beefficient and scalable, and should be helpful for the future research on efficient queryprocessing in a large XML database.

Active learning techniques aim to reduce the amount of labeled data required for a supervised learner to achieve a certain level of performance. This can be very useful in domains where unlabeled data is easy to obtain but labelling data is costly. In this dissertation, I introduce methods of creating computationally efficient active learning techniques that handle different misclassification costs, different evaluation metrics, and different label acquisition costs. This is accomplished in part by developing techniques from utility-based data mining typically not studied in conjunction with active learning. I first address supervised learning problems where labeled data may be scarce, especially for one particular class. I revisit claims about resampling, a particularly popular approach to handling imbalanced data, and cost-sensitive learning. The presented research shows that while resampling and cost-sensitive learning can be equivalent in some cases, the two approaches are not identical. This work on resampling and cost-sensitive learning motivates a need for active learners that can handle different misclassification costs. After presenting a cost-sensitive active learning algorithm, I show that this algorithm can be combined with a proposed framework for analyzing evaluation metrics in order to create an active learning approach that can optimize any evaluation metric that can be expressed as a function of terms in a confusion matrix. Finally, I address methods for active learning in terms of different utility costs incurred when labeling different types of points, particularly when label acquisition costs are spatially driven. / text

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo realizar experimentos de incorporação de precursores isotopicamente marcados em produtos naturais isolados do meio de cultura de duas espécies de fungos do gênero Penicillium, de maneira a se verificar a rota de biossíntese dos compostos produzidos pelas linhagens P. citrinum F53 e P. oxalicum F30. Para tanto, os meios de cultura utilizados na fermentação das linhagens foram enriquecidos com os seguintes precursores: [1-13C1]acetato de sódio, [1,2-13C2]acetato de sódio, [2,3-13C2]propionato de sódio, [metil-13C1]metionina, [1-13C1]glicose, [U-13C5]ornitina, [U-13C6]lisina, [U-13C5]prolina, [U-13C6]histidina, [2-indol-13C1]triptofano e [U-13C6]ácido antranílico, separadamente. Ao final do período de fermentação, as culturas foram separadamente submetidas à extração em fase sólida e analisadas por CLAE/UV/EM/IES. Os experimentos de incorporação que apresentaram resultados positivos tiveram seus produtos purificados por CLAE/UV e analisados por RMN de 13C. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que dois dihidropirrois produzidos por P. citrinum F53 são formados por uma rota biossintética mista, oriunda de um resíduo de ornitina, um grupo metila derivado da metionina e uma cadeia policetídica derivada do acetato. Os alcaloides citrinalina B e 17-hidroxicitrinalina B, também produzidos por P. citrinum F53, são ambos derivados de dois resíduos de aminoácidos, ornitina e triptofano (via ácido antranílico), e dois grupos isopreno derivados da glicose (via mevalonato). Os alcaloides oxalina e meleagrina, produzidos por P. oxalicum F30, são formados a partir de uma via biossintética mista derivada de dois resíduos de aminoácidos, histidina e triptofano (via ácido antranílico), e grupos metila derivados da metionina. / The present investigation aimed to carry out feeding experiments for the incorporation of isotopic labeled precursors on natural products isolated from the culture media of two fungal species belonging to the Penicillium genus, in order to verify the biosynthetic pathway of the compounds produced by the P. citrinum F53 and P. oxalicum F30 fungal strains. Culture media used in the fermentation of the fungal strains were enriched with the following isotopic labeled precursors: [1-13C1]sodium acetate, [1,2-13C2]sodium acetate, [2,3-13C2]sodium propionate, [methyl-13C1]methionine, [1-13C1]glucose, [U-13C5]ornithine, [U-13C6]lysine, [U-13C5]proline, [U-13C6]histidine, [2-indol-13C1]tryptophan, and [U-13C6]anthranilic acid, separately. At the end of the fermentation period, culture media were separately subjected to solid phase extraction and analyzed by LC/UV/ESI/MS. The incorporation experiments that showed positive results were purified by HPLC/UV, and the pure compounds labeled in different positions were then analyzed by 13C-NMR. The results demonstrated that two dihydropyrroles produced by P. citrinum F53 were formed via a mixed biosynthetic route, derived from ornithine, a methyl group derived from methionine, and a polyketide chain derived from acetate. The alkaloids citrinalin B and 17-hydroxycitrinalin B, also produced by P. citrinum F53, are both derived from two amino acid residues, ornithine and tryptophan (via anthranilic acid), and two isoprene units derived from glucose via the mevalonate pathway. The alkaloids oxaline and meleagrine, produced by P. oxalicum F30, are formed via a mixed biosynthetic pathway by two amino acid residues, histidine and tryptophan (via anthranilic acid), and methyl groups derived from methionine.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo realizar experimentos de incorporação de precursores isotopicamente marcados em produtos naturais isolados do meio de cultura de duas espécies de fungos do gênero Penicillium, de maneira a se verificar a rota de biossíntese dos compostos produzidos pelas linhagens P. citrinum F53 e P. oxalicum F30. Para tanto, os meios de cultura utilizados na fermentação das linhagens foram enriquecidos com os seguintes precursores: [1-13C1]acetato de sódio, [1,2-13C2]acetato de sódio, [2,3-13C2]propionato de sódio, [metil-13C1]metionina, [1-13C1]glicose, [U-13C5]ornitina, [U-13C6]lisina, [U-13C5]prolina, [U-13C6]histidina, [2-indol-13C1]triptofano e [U-13C6]ácido antranílico, separadamente. Ao final do período de fermentação, as culturas foram separadamente submetidas à extração em fase sólida e analisadas por CLAE/UV/EM/IES. Os experimentos de incorporação que apresentaram resultados positivos tiveram seus produtos purificados por CLAE/UV e analisados por RMN de 13C. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que dois dihidropirrois produzidos por P. citrinum F53 são formados por uma rota biossintética mista, oriunda de um resíduo de ornitina, um grupo metila derivado da metionina e uma cadeia policetídica derivada do acetato. Os alcaloides citrinalina B e 17-hidroxicitrinalina B, também produzidos por P. citrinum F53, são ambos derivados de dois resíduos de aminoácidos, ornitina e triptofano (via ácido antranílico), e dois grupos isopreno derivados da glicose (via mevalonato). Os alcaloides oxalina e meleagrina, produzidos por P. oxalicum F30, são formados a partir de uma via biossintética mista derivada de dois resíduos de aminoácidos, histidina e triptofano (via ácido antranílico), e grupos metila derivados da metionina. / The present investigation aimed to carry out feeding experiments for the incorporation of isotopic labeled precursors on natural products isolated from the culture media of two fungal species belonging to the Penicillium genus, in order to verify the biosynthetic pathway of the compounds produced by the P. citrinum F53 and P. oxalicum F30 fungal strains. Culture media used in the fermentation of the fungal strains were enriched with the following isotopic labeled precursors: [1-13C1]sodium acetate, [1,2-13C2]sodium acetate, [2,3-13C2]sodium propionate, [methyl-13C1]methionine, [1-13C1]glucose, [U-13C5]ornithine, [U-13C6]lysine, [U-13C5]proline, [U-13C6]histidine, [2-indol-13C1]tryptophan, and [U-13C6]anthranilic acid, separately. At the end of the fermentation period, culture media were separately subjected to solid phase extraction and analyzed by LC/UV/ESI/MS. The incorporation experiments that showed positive results were purified by HPLC/UV, and the pure compounds labeled in different positions were then analyzed by 13C-NMR. The results demonstrated that two dihydropyrroles produced by P. citrinum F53 were formed via a mixed biosynthetic route, derived from ornithine, a methyl group derived from methionine, and a polyketide chain derived from acetate. The alkaloids citrinalin B and 17-hydroxycitrinalin B, also produced by P. citrinum F53, are both derived from two amino acid residues, ornithine and tryptophan (via anthranilic acid), and two isoprene units derived from glucose via the mevalonate pathway. The alkaloids oxaline and meleagrine, produced by P. oxalicum F30, are formed via a mixed biosynthetic pathway by two amino acid residues, histidine and tryptophan (via anthranilic acid), and methyl groups derived from methionine.