This paper considers the statistical mechanics occupation of the edge of a single helix of DNA by simple polymers. Using Fisher's exact closed form solution for dimers on a two-dimensional lattice, a one-dimensional lattice is created mathematically that is occupied by dimers, monomers, and holes. The free energy, entropy, average occupation, and total charge on the lattice are found through the usual statistical methods. The results demonstrate the charge inversion required for a DNA helix to undergo DNA condensation.

Arctic climate is changing fast, but weather forecast and climate models have serious deficiencies in representing the Arctic atmosphere, because of the special conditions that occur in this region. The cold ice surface and the advection of warm air aloft from the south result in a semi-continuous presence of a temperature inversion, known as the “Arctic inversion”, which is governed by interacting large-scale and local processes, such as surface fluxes and cloud formation. In this thesis these poorly understood interactions are investigated using observations from field campaigns on the Swedish icebreaker Oden: The Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) in 2008 and the Arctic Clouds in Summer Experiment (ACSE) in 2014. Two numerical models are also used to explore these data: the IFS global weather forecast model from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts and the MIMICA LES from Stockholm University. Arctic clouds can persist for a long time, days to weeks, and are usually mixed-phase; a difficult to model mixture of super-cooled cloud droplets and ice crystals. Their persistence has been attributed to several mechanisms, such as large-scale advection, surface evaporation and microphysical processes. ASCOS observations indicate that these clouds are most frequently decoupled from the surface; hence, surface evaporation plays a minor role. The determining factor for cloud-surface decoupling is the altitude of the clouds. Turbulent mixing is generated in the cloud layer, forced by cloud-top radiative cooling, but with a high cloud this cannot penetrate down to the surface mixed layer, which is forced primarily by mechanical turbulence. A special category of clouds is also found: optically thin liquid-only clouds with stable stratification, hence insignificant in-cloud mixing, which occur in low-aerosol conditions. IFS model fails to reproduce the cloud-surface decoupling observed during ASCOS. A new prognostic cloud physics scheme in IFS improves simulation of mixed-phase clouds, but does not improve the warm bias in the model, mostly because IFS fails to disperse low surface-warming clouds when observations indicate cloud-free conditions. With increasing summer open-water areas in a warming Arctic, there is a growing interest in processes related to the ice marginal zones and the summer-to-autumn seasonal transition. ACSE included measurements over both open-water and sea-ice surfaces, during melt and early freeze. The seasonal transition was abrupt, not gradual as would have been expected if it was primarily driven by the gradual changes in net solar radiation. After the transition, the ocean surface remained warmer than the atmosphere, enhancing surface cooling and facilitating sea-ice formation. Observations in melt season showed distinct differences in atmospheric structure between the two surface types; during freeze-up these largely disappear. In summer, large-scale advection of warm and moist air over melting sea ice had large impacts on atmospheric stability and the surface. This is explored with an LES; results indicate that while vertical structure of the lowest atmosphere is primarily sensitive to heat advection, cloud formation, which is of great importance to the surface energy budget, is primarily sensitive to moisture advection. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

The cause and distribution of spatial variations in the mechanical properties of the continental lithosphere are fundamental questions for modern geology. In this study variations in long-term lithospheric rigidity have been investigated. These investigations used profile- and grid-based flexural models of the lithosphere’s response to geologically imposed topographic, or buried, loads. These models were constrained by topographic and gravity data allowing recovery of best fitting rigidity values. In Oman a Cretaceous ophiolite acts as a significant load on the continental crust. Flexural models along profiles orthogonal to the ophiolite strike show that the observed gravity data can be best modelled by an elastic beam with standard thickness (T_e) of 30 km. Along strike there is shown to be significant variation in the foreland shape and the observed gravity signal. This, it is proposed, relates to the complex tectonic processes which occurred as the ophiolite was obducted. The Himalayan foreland has been the focus of controversy over the recovered long-term rigidity of the continents, with recovered T_e values ranging from 40 to over 90 km. Both profile- and grid-based techniques show that T_e is high (>70 km) in the foreland region. Across the India-Eurasia collisional system as a whole T_e values are variable. Beneath the Tibetan plateau recovered values are generally low (<10 km), while the plateau margins are marked by regions of higher rigidity. Recovered T_e values across the Arabia-Eurasia collisional system range from over 60 km in the foreland region to close to zero beneath the high Zagros mountains. In the eastern part of the foreland, flexural models match the gravity data; however, they disagree with sediment thickness data for the material infilling the foreland. This discrepancy is interpreted in terms of de-coupling of the flexural lithosphere from the shallower crustal levels, caused by the presence of significant salt deposits in this region. Application of grid-based techniques to South America, North America and Europe recover a broad range of Te values from ∼0 to over 90 km. The low T_e values are explained in active orogenic belts in terms of current processes acting to weaken the lithosphere, and in the continental interiors as the relics of past orogenic events. High T_e values in the continental interiors correlate with ancient cratonic cores which have undergone little deformation since their formation in the Archean. This study shows that T_e variations have a critical influence on the development of large compressional orogenic belts. In the Himalayan and Andean orogens there is a correlation between the over-thrusting of the orogenic belt and high T_e foreland regions. Where lower T_e regions are seen, less over thrusting is apparent, and in the case of the India-Eurasia collisional system out-flow of lower crustal material may be occurring.

Experiments using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) have shown promising results in reducing the uncertainty of solute plume characteristics related to estimates based on the analysis of local point measurements only. To explore the similarities and differences between two cross-borehole ERT inversion approaches for characterizing salt tracer plumes, namely the classical smoothness-constrained inversion and a geostatistically based approach, we performed two-dimensional synthetic experiments. Simplifying assumptions about the solute transport model and the electrical forward and inverse model allowed us to study the sensitivity of the ERT inversion approaches towards a variety of basic conditions, including the number of boreholes, measurement schemes, contrast between the plume and background electrical conductivity, use of a priori knowledge, and point conditioning. The results show that geostatistically based and smoothness-constrained inversions of electrical resistance data yield plume characteristics of similar quality, which can be further improved when point measurements are incorporated and advantageous measurement schemes are chosen. As expected, an increased number of boreholes included in the ERT measurement layout can highly improve the quality of inferred plume characteristics, while in this case the benefits of point conditioning and advantageous measurement schemes diminish. Both ERT inversion approaches are similarly sensitive to the noise level of the data and the contrast between the solute plume and background electrical conductivity, and robust with regard to biased input parameters, such as mean concentration, variance, and correlation length of the plume. Although sophisticated inversion schemes have recently become available, in which flow and transport as well as electrical forward models are coupled, these schemes effectively rely on a relatively simple geometrical parameterization of the hydrogeological model. Therefore, we believe that standard uncoupled ERT inverse approaches, like the ones discussed and assessed in this paper, will continue to be important to the imaging and characterization of solute plumes in many real-world applications. (C) 2016 Hohai University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

Title: Toward concept visualization through image generation Author: Tien Dat Nguyen Department: Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics Supervisors: Pavel Pecina (Charles University in Prague), Angeliki Lazaridou, Raffaella Bernardi, Marco Baroni (University of Trento), Abstract: Computational linguistic and computer vision have a common way to embed the semantics of linguistic/visual units through vector representation. In addition, high-quality semantic representations can be effectively constructed thanks to recent advances in neural network methods. Nevertheless, the under- standing of these representations remains limited, so they need to be assessed in an intuitive way. Cross-modal mapping is mapping between vector semantic embedding of words and the visual representations of the corresponding objects from images. Inverting image representation involves learning an image inversion of visual vectors (SIFT, HOG and CNN features) to reconstruct the original one. The goal of this project is to build a complete pipeline, in which word represen- tations are transformed into image vectors using cross modal mapping and these vectors are projected to pixel space using inversion. This suggests that there might be a groundbreaking way to inspect and evaluate the semantics encoded in word representations by...

This thesis presents two new algorithms for doing constrained Magnetotelluric (MT) inversion based on an existing Occam 2D inversion program. The first algorithm includes borehole resistivity logs as prior information to constrain resistivity directly in the vicinity of boreholes. The second algorithm uses reflection seismic data as prior constraints to transfer structural information from seismic images to 2D resistivity models. These two algorithms are efficient (proved through tests of synthetic examples) and widely applicable. In this thesis, they have been successfully applied to the COSC (Collisional Orogeny in the Scandinavian Caledonides) MT data. The COSC project aims to study the mountain belt dynamics in central Sweden by drilling two 2.5 km deep boreholes. MT data were collected to locate the main décollement that separates the overlying Caledonian allochthons and the underlying Precambrian basement, as the main décollement is associated with very conductive Alum shale. The previous interpretation based on part of the COSC seismic profile (CSP) was that the main décollement was located along a reflection with depth of 4.5 km underneath Åre and ~3 km underneath Mörsil, in central Jämtland. The MT resistivity model reveals a very conductive layer in the central and western parts of the profile, the top of which coincides with the first seismic reflection. This means that the first conductive alum shale layer occurs at less than 1 km depth, supporting a new interpretation of the main décollement at shallower depth. In a re-interpretation of the CSP data based on the MT model, the main décollement occurs a few hundred metres below the top of the conductor and is coincident with a laterally continuous seismic reflection. Further, the overlying seismic reflections resemble imbricated alum shale of the Lower Allochthon. MT inversion using seismic constraints from CSP gives further support to the new interpretation. Moreover, MT investigations were conducted in the Alnö alkaline and carbonatite ring-intrusion complex in Sweden. 2D and 3D resistivity models inverted from MT data together with resistivity and porosity laboratory measurements delineate a fossil magma chamber as a resistive anomaly surrounded by electrically conductive up-doming and ring-shaped faults and fractures.

The two end-member concept of mantle plume-driven versus far field stress-driven continental rifting anticipates high volumes of magma emplaced close to the rift-initiating plume, whereas relatively low magmatic volumes are predicted at large distances from the plume where the rifting is thought to be driven by far field stresses. We test this concept at the Guinea Plateau, which represents the last area of separation between Africa and South America, by investigating for rift-related volumes of magmatism using borehole, 3D seismic, and gravity data to run structural 3D inversions in two different data areas. Despite our interpretation of igneous rocks spanning large areas of continental shelf covered by the available seismic surveys, the calculated volumes in the Guinea Plateau barely match the magmatic volumes of other magma-poor margins and thus endorse the aforementioned concept. While the volcanic units on the shelf seem to be characterized more dominantly by horizontally deposited extrusive volcanic flows distributed over larger areas, numerous paleo-seamounts pierce complexly deformed pre and syn-rift sedimentary units on the slope. As non-uniqueness is an omnipresent issue when using potential field data to model geologic features, our method faced some challenges in the areas exhibiting complicated geology. In this situation less rigid constraints were applied in the modeling process. The misfit issues were successfully addressed by filtering the frequency content of the gravity data according to the depth of the investigated geology. In this work, we classify and compare our volume estimates for rift-related magmatism between the Guinea Fracture Zone (FZ) and the Saint Paul's FZ while presenting the refinements applied to our modeling technique.

Les émissions anthropiques et naturelles de méthane en Sibérie contribuent de manièrenotable, mais mal quantifiée au budget mondial de méthane (3–11% des émissions mondiales).Au Sud de la région, les émissions anthropiques sont liées aux grands centres urbains.Au Nord, l’extraction de gaz et de pétrole en Sibérie occidentale induit d’importantessources anthropiques ponctuelles. Ces régions sont aussi couvertes de vastes zones humidesnaturelles émettant du méthane durant l’été (typiquement de mai à septembre). Nous utilisonsdes inversions atmosphériques régionales à la méso-échelle pour mieux comprendreles contributions de chaque processus dans le budget sibérien. Les inversions souffrent desincertitudes dans les observations, dans la simulation du transport et dans l’amplitude et ladistribution des émissions. Pour prendre en compte ces incertitudes, je développe une nouvelleméthode d’inversion basée sur une marginalisation des statistiques d’erreurs. Je testecette méthode et documente sa robustesse sur un cas test. Je l’applique ensuite à la Sibérie.À l’aide de mesures de concentrations atmosphériques de méthane collectées par des sitesd’observation de surface en Sibérie, j’estime le budget régional de méthane sibérien à 5–28 TgCH4.a−1 (1–5% des émissions mondiales), soit une réduction de 50% des incertitudespar rapport aux précédentes études dans la région. Grâce à cette méthode, je suis de plus enmesure de détecter des structures d’émissions par zones de quelques milliers de km2 et leurvariabilité à une résolution de 2–4 semaines. / Anthopogenic and natural methane emissions in Siberia significantly contribute to theglobal methane budget, but the magnitude of these emissions is uncertain (3–11% of globalemissions). To the South, anthropogenic emissions are related to big urban centres. To theNorth, oil and gas extraction in West Siberia is responsible for conspicuous point sources.These regions are also covered by large natural wetlands emitting methane during the snowfreeseason, roughly from May to September. Regional atmospheric inversions at a meso-scaleprovide a mean for improving our knowledge on all emission process. But inversions sufferfrom the uncertainties in the assimilated observations, in the atmospheric transport modeland in the emission magnitude and distribution. I developp a new inversion method based onerror statistic marginalization in order to account for these uncertainties. I test this methodon case study and explore its robustness. I then apply it to Siberia. Using measurements ofmethane atmospheric concentrations gathered at Siberian surface observation sites, I founda regional methane budget in Siberia of 5–28 TgCH4.a−1 (1–5% of global emissions). Thisimplies a reduction of 50% in the uncertainties on the regional budget. With the new method,I also can detect emission patterns at a resolution of a few thousands km2 and emissionvariability at a resolution of 2–4 weeks.

Neste trabalho analisamos o movimento de carga espacial monopolar livre em dielétricos, procurando fornecer subsídios para a interpretação de resultados experimentais. São mostradas as soluções para diversos tipos de distribuições iniciais de carga. A partir daí são encontradas relações que nos levam a algumas conclusões a respeito da relação entre distribuição e corrente externa produzida. São propostos métodos para a determinação da mobilidade dos portadores de carga no dielétrico e da concavidade de uma distribuição desconhecida. Analisamos também as condições para o aparecimento de inversão de corrente / On this work, we study the monopolar space charge motion in dielectrics in the aim of providing general information about it to the experimentalist. The electric current is obtained for many initial charge distributions and some relations are derived linking the behavior of the current to the initial charge distribution. We propose methods for obtaining the mobility of the carriers from experimental results. Finally the conditions for observation of current reversals are analyzed

Este trabalho investiga os efeitos semânticos e pragmáticos de um tipo específico de foco que chamamos foco sobreinformativo e como ele afeta relações de escopo entre sintagmas quantificadores em português brasileiro. Discutimos como a estrutura informacional e o escopo de quantificadores interagem, com atenção especial a vários tipos de quantificadores, como universais, existenciais, e cardinais. Relações de escopo em português brasileiro foram investigadas em Negrão (1999), que concluiu trata-se de uma língua bastante rígida nesse aspecto, não permitindo inversão de escopo na maioria dos casos. Tal trabalho, entretanto, se restringiu a contextos neutros. Nosso objetivo é investigar como o foco sobreinformativo pode afetar essa aparente rigidez. No decorrer do trabalho fornecemos análises sintáticas e semânticas detalhadas da interação entre quantificação e focalização e uma caracterização pragmática dos contextos em que o foco sobreinformativo é lícito. / This work investigates the semantic and pragmatic effects of a specific kind of focus which we call over-informative focus and how it affects scope relations among quantifier phrases in Brazilian Portuguese. We discuss how information structure and quantifier scope interact paying attention to many types of quantifiers such as universals, existential and cardinals. Scope relations in Brazilian Portuguese were investigated by Negrão (1999), who have concluded that the language is very rigid disallowing scope inversion in most cases. Her work, however, was restricted to neutral (out-of-the-blue) contexts. Our goal is to investigate how over-informative focus affects this apparent rigidity. Throughout this work, we give a detailed syntactic and semantic analysis of the interaction between quantification and focalization and a pragmatic characterization of contexts in which over informative focus is licit.