Bibliography: leaves 282-296.

[Abstract]: There is currently a shortage of irrigation water available for cotton production in Australia due to recent climatic and legislative conditions. Some growers have responded to this water shortage by changing from traditional furrow irrigation to alternative irrigation systems such as centre pivots and lateral move irrigations(collectively known as large mobile irrigation machines – LMIMs). Improved efficiency of irrigation application, as well as labour savings, have been the main reasons for the increased adoption of LMIMs. The use of LMIMs also enables a higher level of control in water application in terms of irrigation volume, timing and placement. As a result, growers now have much greater control over soil moistureconditions which enables the implementation of improved irrigation management strategies that have the potential for improved crop water use productivity (yield/ML).Two irrigation strategies which have been demonstrated to achieve benefits in terms of crop water use are partial rootzone drying (PRD) and deficit irrigation (DI). PRDand DI involve manipulating the placement of irrigation water and the moisture deficit maintained in the root zone, respectively. Neither PRD nor DI is able to beapplied easily under furrow irrigation. However, both PRD and DI may be able to be implemented under LMIMs within the Australian cotton industry. Deficit irrigation has been shown to be effective at improving water use productivity in cotton, although it is not widely used within the Australian cotton industry.Similarly, there has been little research conducted to identify whether cotton responds to partial rootzone drying and there is currently little understanding of theway in which DI and PRD strategies could be implemented commercially using LMIMs.This research carried out from 2002 to 2005 investigated the response of cotton to a range of PRD and deficit irrigation strategies for use under LMIMs. Assessment ofthe biochemical and physiological response of cotton to PRD and regulated deficit irrigation strategies was conducted under glasshouse conditions in Toowoomba, Qld.Field trials conducted under a commercial centre pivot and lateral move situated on the Darling Downs assessed the crop response, soil moisture movement, yield andgross production water use associated with the implementation of a range of PRD and deficit treatments. Modelling of rainfall probability and soil moisture movement were also undertaken to quantify constraints to the successful commercial implementation of irrigation management strategies such as PRD within theAustralian cotton industry.PRD applied to cotton grown in split-pot containers under glasshouse conditions was found to produce a biochemical response in the form of a four fold increase in xylemAbscisic Acid concentration. The application of alternated PRD strategies was generally found to reduce both vegetative (i.e. height, leaf area) and reproductive(i.e. fruiting sites) plant growth compared to Control treatments irrigated on both sides of the plant. Increasing the period between PRD alternations from 5 to 15days when the soil moisture potential in the wet root zone was maintained between 30 and 60 kPa also reduced the plant height and the number of fruiting sites.However, where the soil moisture in the wetted root zone was maintained at <3 kPa and alternation was based on the dry root zone moisture levels 16% (~350 kPa) and10% (>1500 kPa) there was no difference in the major plant growth indicators (i.e. height, fruiting branches, fruiting sites, leaf area) between the various alternatedPRD treatments. This suggests that the level of moisture availability in the wet root zone area is a key factor influencing water uptake and crop stress under alternatedPRD conditions.No significant difference in crop growth or yield was found as a result of the PRD treatments implemented under commercial field conditions. However, this may havebeen attributed to the inability to apply and maintain a sufficient soil moisture gradient across the root zone to successfully induce biochemical signalling from PRD. Practical limitations in the successful application of PRD in cotton production are attributed to the soil hydraulic properties, current irrigation practices (i.e. volumeand frequency of water applied) and the occurrence of in-season rainfall events. Rainfall probability and soil moisture modelling were used to evaluate the practical application of PRD within the Australian cotton industry. This work suggested thatthe creation of a soil moisture gradient across the plant root zone large enough to trigger a PRD response is most likely to be achieved on light textured soils located insemi-arid regions which experience minimal in-season rainfall events. However, the conditions are only met for a relatively small proportion of the current Australiancotton industry. Hence, it would seem that further research into the benefits of implementing PRD in cotton under LMIMs is not warranted.Regulated deficit irrigation applied under glasshouse conditions was found to have a controlling influence over partitioning between vegetative and reproductive growth.Improved physiological and gross production to water use benefits were measured as a result of deficit irrigation under field conditions and regulated deficit irrigationunder glasshouse conditions. Deficit irrigation (79% of predicted ET) under field conditions produced a 31.5% improvement in gross production water use index(GPWUI = Yield / Total water applied (rainfall, irrigation and stored soil moisture)) over commercial practice (i.e. applying 100% of predicted ET). However, thelargest benefits derived from deficit irrigation were associated with the management of crop agronomics (i.e. vegetative growth, retention rate and crop earliness) and the increased ability for capture of in-crop rainfall. Hence, deficit irrigation may provide substantial benefits for the cotton industry in terms of productivity of irrigation water applied as well as total water applied (irrigation, rainfall and soil moisture reserves).The ability to implement a suitable deficit irrigation strategy is regionally and seasonally dependent as the uncertainty over the timing of rainfall events andirrigation allocation both within and between seasons makes the optimal use of water resources difficult. Hence, future research should aim to enhance current cropproduction models to predict crop growth and response to a range of deficit irrigation treatments. Greater knowledge and adoption in the use of climatic predictors (suchas SOI) are required to improve the volume and timing of deficit irrigations applied. An economics framework should be developed which encompasses resource costs and constraints on a farm basis to enable the identification of optimal management practices based on the risk profiles of the various deficit irrigation strategies.Irrigation scheduling under LMIMs is also currently limited by the use of point scale soil moisture measurements (especially under low energy precision applicator LEPA) socks) and this may be improved by the use of plant based sensors.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis considers transmission techniques for current and future wireless and mobile communications systems. Many of the results are quite general, however there is a particular focus on code-division multiple-access (CDMA) and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. The thesis provides analytical techniques and results for finding key performance metrics such as signal-to-interference and noise power ratios (SINR) and capacity. This thesis considers a large-system analysis of a general linear matrix-vector communications channel, in order to determine the asymptotic performance of linear fixed and adaptive receivers. Unlike many previous large-system analyses, these results cannot be derived directly from results in the literature. This thesis considers a first-principles analytical approach. The technique unifies the analysis of both the minimum-mean-squared-error (MMSE) receiver and the adaptive least-squares (ALS) receiver, and also uses a common approach for both random i.i.d. and random orthogonal precoding. The approach is also used to derive the distribution of sums and products of free random matrices. Expressions for the asymptotic SINR of the MMSE receiver are derived, along with the transient and steady-state SINR of the ALS receiver, trained using either i.i.d. data sequences or orthogonal training sequences. The results are in terms of key system parameters, and allow for arbitrary distributions of the power of each of the data streams and the eigenvalues of the channel correlation matrix. In the case of the ALS receiver, we allow a diagonal loading constant and an arbitrary data windowing function. For i.i.d. training sequences and no diagonal loading, we give a fundamental relationship between the transient/steady-state SINR of the ALS and the MMSE receivers. We demonstrate that for a particular ratio of receive to transmit dimensions and window shape, all channels which have the same MMSE SINR have an identical transient ALS SINR response. We demonstrate several applications of the results, including an optimization of information throughput with respect to training sequence length in coded block transmission.

Depuis plusieurs années, le domaine des télécommunications et des nouvelles technologies connaît un véritable essor. On assiste aujourd'hui à un engouement sans précédent du grand public pour les applications de communication multimédia (données, voix, photos, vidéos) et la demande est de plus en plus forte pour un transfert à haut débit entre des équipements communicants mobiles et à encombrement réduit. De plus, que le mode d'utilisation soit nomade ou sédentaire, les technologies radio sans fils (Bluetooth, WiFi, GPRS, UMTS, WiMax) connaissent un grand succès. Pour répondre à ces besoins croissants de communication sans fils à haut débit, les futures générations d'équipements vont faire appel à des antennes de plus en plus performantes. Celles-ci devront fonctionner sur plusieurs bandes de fréquences ou sur une large bande. Mais elles devront aussi, pour des raisons pratiques et esthétiques, être intégrées aux systèmes radio, ce qui requiert la mise au point de structures compactes, discrètes et n'ayant pas de problèmes de compatibilité électromagnétique avec les circuits électroniques environnants. Pour répondre à ces différents objectifs, nous avons axé notre recherche sur les antennes tridimensionnelles qui offrent un grand nombre de degrés de liberté. Mais ces structures sont souvent complexes car elles comportent de nombreux paramètres. Afin de mieux les appréhender, nous proposons dans cette thèse d'élaborer une démarche de conception de ces antennes. Ainsi, nous commençons par l'étude systématique d'une antenne canonique constituée d'un dipôle placé à proximité d'une cavité métallique rectangulaire. L'effet des différents paramètres est analysé afin de mettre en évidence l'importance relative de chacun d'entre eux et de proposer ainsi une démarche de conception pour optimiser la bande passante et le rayonnement de l'antenne. Dans un deuxième temps, nous présentons la conception d'une antenne tridimensionnelle compacte, large bande et directive, l'antenne "sonde en F et triangle", qui offre l'avantage de présenter un diagramme de rayonnement stable en fréquence. Puis, fort de l'expérience acquise sur l'antenne dipôle, nous procédons de nouveau à une étude de l'influence sur l'impédance des différents paramètres de cette antenne complexe. Celle-ci permet d'élaborer une méthodologie de conception simple, rapide, efficace et générale. Nous pouvons ainsi optimiser l'antenne "sonde en F et triangle" et atteindre une bande passante en adaptation comprise entre 3.1 et 6.1 GHz. Le diagramme de rayonnement de cette antenne est stable sur la bande passante et le gain moyen de cette antenne est de 6 dB. Une caractérisation dans le domaine temporel est ensuite proposée afin de connaître le comportement de l'antenne dans une communication UWB. Enfin, l'antenne "sonde en F et triangle" est mise en cavité afin d'étudier ses propriétés lors de l'intégration dans un système radio. Des analogies et différences entre cette antenne complexe et le système {dipôle et cavité} sont également mises en évidence.

No description available.

Le convertisseur analogique-numérique fondé sur le principe de modulation SD est capable de fournir une très haute résolution. Bien qu'il nécessite un suréchantillonnage, il est peu sensible aux imperfections des composants. Le modulateur SD classique est donc très populaire pour les applications de bande étroite demandant une très haute résolution. Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressés à l'extension des applications du modulateur SD vers une bande passante plus large. Nous avons tout d'abord étudié l'architecture parallèle basant sur la modulation SD et proposé une nouvelle architecture basant sur la modulation SD passe-haut et l'entrelacement temporel permettant de réduire de façon significative le problème caractéristique du parallélisme, à savoir la disparité entre les canaux. Nous avons ensuite étudié le modulateur SD passe-haut et proposé une implémentation en technique des capacités commutées. Ce nouveau modulateur, contrairement au modulateur classique, est complètement immune au bruit de basse fréquence et peut être utilisé non seulement dans une architecture parallèle, mais aussi de façon autonome. Nous avons aussi modélisé la plupart de non-idéalités du modulateur en VHDL-AMS pour finalement arriver à une méthodologie de conception descendante qui permet de dériver les spécifications de tous les blocs du circuit à partir de performance visée pour le système complet. L'implémentation d'un modulateur SD passe-haut d'ordre 2 et un convertisseur SD passe-haut en combinant avec l'entrelacement temporel a été réalisée en technologie CMOS 0,35 mm. Enfin, notre travail nous a permis de démontrer non seulement l'avantage du modulateur SD passe-haut, mais aussi un perspective prometteur du modulateur SD parallèle pour les applications de très large bande.

In this dissertation, multi-rate array (MRA) architecture and its synthesis are proposed and developed. Using multi-coordinate systems (MCS), a unified theory for mapping algorithms from their original algorithmic specifications onto multi-rate arrays is developed. A multi-rate array is a grid of processors in which each interconnection may have its own clock rate; operations with different complexities run at their own clock rate, thus increasing the throughput and efficiency. A class of algorithms named directional affine recurrence equations (DARE) is defined. The dependence space of a DARE can be decomposed into uniform and non-uniform subspaces. When projected along the non-uniform subspace, the resultant array structure is regular. Limitations and restrictions of this approach are investigated and a procedure for mapping DARE onto MRA is developed. To generalize this approach, synthesis theory is developed with initial specification as affine direct input output (ADIO) which aims at removing redundancies from algorithms. Most ADIO specifications are the original algorithmic specifications. A multi-coordinate systems (MCS) is used to present an algorithm's dependence structures. In a MCS system, the index spaces of the variables in an algorithm are defined relative to their own coordinate systems. Most traditionally considered irregular algorithms present regular dependence structures under MCS technique. Procedures are provided for transforming algorithms from original algorithmic specifications to their regular specifications. Multi-rate schedules and multi-rate timing functions are studied. The solution for multi-rate timing functions can be formulated as linear programming problems. Procedures are provided for mapping ADIOs onto multi-rate VLSI systems. Examples are provided to illustrate the synthesis of MRAs from DAREs and ADIOs. The first major contribution of this dissertation is the development of the concrete, executable MRA architectures. The second is the introduction of MCS system and its application in the development of the theory for synthesizing MRAs from original algorithmic specifications. / Graduation date: 1995

Turbulent flows present structures with a wide range of scales. The computation of the complete physics of a turbulent flow (termed DNS) is very expensive and is, for the time being, limited to low and medium Reynolds number flows. As a way to capture high Reynolds number flows, a part of the physics complexity has to be modeled. Large eddy simulation (LES) is a simulation strategy where the large turbulent eddies present on a given mesh are captured and the influence of the non-resolved scales onto the resolved ones is modeled. The present thesis reports on the development and validation of a methodology in order to apply LES for complex wall-bounded flows. Discretization methods and LES models, termed subgrid scale models (SGS), compatible with such a geometrical complexity are discussed. It is proved that discrete a kinetic energy conserving discretization of the convective term is an attractive solution to perform stable simulations without the use of an artificial dissipation, as upwinding. The dissipative effect of the SGS model is thus unaffected by any additional dissipation process. The methodology is first applied to a developed parallel fourth-order incompressible flow solver for cartesian non-uniform meshes. In order to solve the resulting Poisson equation, an efficient multigrid solver is also developed. The code is first validated using DNS (Taylor-Green vortex, channel flow, four-vortex system) and LES (channel flow), and finally applied to the investigation of an aircraft two-vortex system in ground effect. The methodology is then applied to improve a RANS-based industrial unstructured compressible flow solver, developed at CENAERO, to perform well for LES applications. The proposed modifications are tested successfully on the unsteady flow past a sphere at Reynolds of 300 and 10000, corresponding to the subcritical regime.

The Weapon Target Assignment (WTA) problem is a fundamental problem arising in defense-related applications of operations research. This problem consists of optimally assigning n weapons to m targets so that the total expected survival value of the targets after all the engagements is minimum. The WTA problem can be formulated as a nonlinear integer programming problem and is known to be NP-complete. There do not exist any exact methods for the WTA problem which can solve even small size problems (for example, with 20 weapons and 20 targets). Though several heuristic methods have been proposed to solve the WTA problem, due to the absence of exact methods, no estimates are available on the quality of solutions produced by such heuristics. In this paper, we suggest linear programming, integer programming, and network flow based lower bounding methods using which we obtain several branch and bound algorithms for the WTA problem. We also propose a network flow based construction heuristic and a very large-scale neighborhood (VLSN) search algorithm. We present computational results of our algorithms which indicate that we can solve moderately large size instances (up to 80 weapons and 80 targets) of the WTA problem optimally and obtain almost optimal solutions of fairly large instances (up to 200 weapons and 200 targets) within a few seconds

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, August 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.