Dans le contexte énergétique actuel, les pouvoirs publics s’engagent à réduire la consommation des énergies fossiles et à développer le marché des énergies renouvelables afin de diminuer les émissions de CO2 et de faire face à la raréfaction des sources d’énergie fossile. La demande en bois-énergie, notamment de plaquettes forestières, est appelée à s’accroître dans les années à venir. Afin d’augmenter la production forestière une exploitation des résidus de coupe de diamètre inférieur à 7 cm, appelés rémanents forestiers, est envisagée. De plus, pour compenser la perte de matière organique exportée avec les rémanents, une compensation minérale sous forme de cendres provenant des chaufferies est envisagée. Cependant, l’impact de telles pratiques de gestion sur les écosystèmes forestiers tempérés ne sont que très peu étudiés. Les objectifs de cette thèse étaient donc d’étudier l’impact d’un export des rémanents forestiers et d’une compensation par les cendres sur la biocénose du sol à différentes échelles et de tenter d’identifier des indicateurs biologiques pouvant mettre en lumière les perturbations de l’écosystème créées par ces gestions. Dans un premier temps, l’étude de la macrofaune et de la mésofaune du sol à une échelle régionale puis nationale a permis de mettre en avant l’importance de l’essence dominante (hêtre ou chêne) dans la réponse du macrofaune à l’export de rémanents. Cette partie a aussi montré que l’export de la totalité des rémanents et de la litière a un impact négatif sur toute la communauté de la faune du sol et que l’apport de cendres ne compensait pas, voire aggravait, l’effet de l’export de rémanents. Dans un second temps, une étude en mésocosme d’un double gradient de quantité de rémanents et de cendres a mis en avant l’importance de la fertilité minérale du sol dans la réponse de l’interface sol-végétation. Dans un sol neutre, l’export des rémanents ou l’apport de cendres ne présentait pas d’impact sur l’interface sol-plante au contraire du sol acide. De plus, dans le sol acide, une importante modification structurelle de la communauté microbienne a été mise en avant lors du mélange entre les rémanents et les cendres. Pour finir cette étude a permis de mettre en lumière les ordres des Lithobiomopha et des Geophilomorpha comme potentielles sources de bioindicateurs des perturbations des réseaux trophiques dans le cadre d’une gestion des rémanents ou d’un apport de cendres / In the current contextof energetic transition, public policies commit to reduce fossil fuel consumption and develop renewable energies in order to reduce CO2 emission. Woody biomass can be one of the solutions in order to increase the share of renewable energu ressources in energetic mix. In order to increase woody biomass production, an export of logging residues (under 7 cm of diameter) is investigated. Furthermore, in order to offset th export of organic matter with logging residue, mineral compensation by wood ash application is investigated. Nevertheless, the effect of such management practices on temperate forest ecosystem were understudied. The aims of this thesis were to study the impact of logging residues management intensity and wood ash offset on soil biota and to investigate potential bioindicators of disturbance led by these practices. First, the study on macrofauna and mesofauna at various scales (regional then northen French) highlited the importance of tree species (oak or beech) the response of soil biota to logging residue export. Furthermore, this first part showed a strong negative impact on the whole soil community when logging residues and litter were exported and wood ash application did not compensate the impacts of logging residues export on macro and mesofauna. Second, a mesocosm study with a cross-gradient of logging residue and wood ash input highlighted the importance of mineral fertility in the response of soil-plant interface. In neutral soil, logging residue export or wood ash application did not impact soil-plant interface, conversely to acidic soil. Furthermore, in acidic soil, a strong structural disturbance of microfloral assemblage was showed when logging residue and wood ash were added together. Third, this thesis highlighted Litobiomorpha and Geophilomorpha orders as potential sources of bioindicators of disturbance of trophic networks in logging residue export and wood ash offset context of forest management practices

[pt] O presente trabalho propõe técnicas numéricas para a síntese de antenas refletoras que utilizando seções de cônicas ou superfícies quádricas confocais. Para tal, utilizando os princípios da Óptica Geométrica, foram desenvolvidos algoritmos capazes de sintetizar as superfícies refletoras desejadas. São analisadas duas geometrias distintas: a antena duplo-refletora com cobertura omnidirecional e a antena refletora offset com um único refletor. No primeiro problema, é apresentado um método alternativo para a síntese geométrica de antenas duplo-refletoras com cobertura omnidirecional e diagrama de radiação arbitrário no plano de elevação. O subrefletor é um corpo de revolução gerado por uma única seção cônica e o refletor principal modelado é gerado por uma série de seções cônicas locais sequencialmente concatenadas. Para ilustrar o método, duas configurações axialmente simétrica são sintetizadas para proporcionar diagramas de radiação uniforme ou cossecante ao quadrado no plano de elevação. Os resultados são validados por uma técnica híbrida baseada em Casamento de Modos e o Método de Momentos. No segundo problema, é investigado um procedimento numérico alternativo para a síntese geométrica de antenas refletoras offset com diagrama de radiação arbitrário na região de campo distante. O método usa superfícies quádricas confocais com eixos deslocados para representar localmente a superfície modelada. Nesta abordagem, um operador não linear deve ser resolvido como um problema de contorno. Para ilustrar o método, são apresentadas antenas modeladas para prover diagrama de radiação Gaussiano em contornos de cobertura circular, elíptico e super-elíptico. / [en] This work proposes numerical techniques for synthesis of reflector antennas, using conic sections or confocal quadric surfaces. Under Geometrical Optics principles, algorithms to shape desired reflective surfaces have been developed. Two different geometries have been considered: omnidirectional dual-reflector antenna and single offset reflector antennas. In the first problem, it was presented an alternative method for synthesis of omnidirectional dual-reflector antennas with an arbitrary radiation pattern in elevation plane. The body-of-revolution subreflector is generated by a single conic section, while the shaped main reflector is generated by a series of local conic sections, sequentially consecutively concatenated. In order to illustrate the method, omnidirectional axisdisplaced ellipse (OADE) and Cassegrain (OADC) configurations are synthesized to provide uniform or cosecant squared radiation pattern in the elevation plane. The GO shaping results are validated by a hybrid technique based on Mode Matching and Method of Moments. In the second problem, an alternative numerical procedure was investigated for the geometrical synthesis of offset reflector antennas with an arbitrary radiation pattern in the far-field region, according to geometrical optics. The method uses local axis-displaced confocal quadric surfaces to describe the shaped reflector. In this approach, a nonlinear operator must be solved as a boundary value problem. To illustrate the method, we have chosen several offset configurations with circular, elliptical and super-elliptical contour coverage and Gaussian power density. The results were validated by the physical optics approximation.

<p>BACKGROUND </p><p>When a customer delivers a colour proof to a printer, they expect the final print to look similar to that proof. Today it is impossible to control if a match between proof and print is technically possible to reach at all. This is mainly due to the fact that no information regarding the production circumstances of the proof is provided, for instance the printer does not know which proofer, RIP or ICC-profile that was used. Situations where similarity between proof and print cannot be reached and the press has to be stopped are both costly and time consuming and are therefore wished to be avoided.</p><p>PURPOSE </p><p>The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the possibility to form a method with the ability control if a proof is of such good quality that it is likely to produce a print that is similar to it.</p><p>METHOD </p><p>The basic assumption was that the quality of a proof could be decided by spectrally measuring known colour patches and compare those values to reference values representing the same patches printed at optimal press conditions. To decide which and how many patches that are required, literature and reports were studied, then a test printing and a comparison between proofing systems were performed. To be able to analyse the measurement data in an effective way a tool that analyses the difference between reference and measurement data was developed using MATLAB. </p><p>RESULT </p><p>The result was a suggestion for a colour proof quality verification method that consists two parts that are supposed to complement each other.The first one was called Colour proofing system evaluation and is supposed to evaluate entire proofing systems. It consists of a test page containing colour patches, grey balance fields, gradations and photographs. The second part is called Colour proof control and consists of a smaller set of colour patches that is supposed to be attached to each proof. </p><p>CONCLUSIONS </p><p>The method is not complete since more research regarding the difference between measurement results and visual impression is needed. To be able to obtain realistic tolerance levels for differences between measurement- and reference data, the method must be tested in every-day production. If this is done the method is thought to provide a good way of controlling the quality of colour proofs.</p>

<p><font size="3" face="Arial"><font size="3" face="Arial"> <p align="left">In this study, I will look at the common law principle of offset to see whether it can be applied to employers making deductions against employees for loss or damage. Notice is a quantifiable amount and is a legal debt / therefore. it should be able to be applied as an offset. Two subsections deal with deductions / after looking carefully at the wording of theses subsections I will try to determine whether the one is alternate to the other, or whether the narrow interpretation that the Department of Labour gives to the statute is accurate. A narrow interpretation of the law states that the employee must sign an acknowledgement of debt. However, employees often refuse to sign an acknowledgement of debt, thereby frustrating the law. Could this possibly have been the intentions of the drafters? Surely not, yet the Department of Labour, by having a narrow interpretation of the law, see it as such and as a result the employer is left out of pocket. In this mini-thesis, I will look at the way the law should be interpreted and the way it should be applied in practice.</p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </font></font></p>

This thesis has focused on color reproduction processes in the graphics field and is based on theoretical research and practical studies. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how new tools and tools adapted to a specific production set-up can be used to raise awareness regarding the quality and workflow of images and image processing for sheet-fed offset within the graphic industry. The work is divided in to the following three study areas with several sub-studies: 1) The first research goal of the thesis is to identify knowledge levels regarding color separation of images and demand specifications within printing houses. 2) The second research goal is to investigate whether novel tools and new terminology can help to increase the knowledge level regarding color management 3) The third goal is to investigate whether process specific adaptation of key color control tools can improve quality levels Three surveys about color reproduction (focusing on level of knowledge concerning color separation, the use of ICC-profiles and demand specifications for controlled color reproduction) at printing companies in Sweden were made between 2000 and 2004. The surveys indicated a serious problem in the graphic arts industry, involving both an insufficient understanding of color management and a lack of communication. An important part of the work was to assist in make color management understandable for users and thereby optimize printing. For this purpose, digital test forms have been developed. The developed tools, together with descriptive material, will facilitate the understanding of color management issues. Definitions within the field of color separations have been examined, and changes have been suggested. A new term for separation “Compensation by Black”, CB, has been suggested, instead of e.g. GCR and UCR. Is it possible to adapt the different parts of the process chain in order to achieve an improved production? Yes! This work has developed the method for adaptation of the scanne rtest chart, the printing test chart for image categorization and the control strip forsheet-fed offset using gray balance. This thesis suggests that it is possible to produce a custom-made IT8 target test chart for scanners and achieve a result at least similar to or even better than the standard test charts on the market. This work has also shown that itis possible to adapt the test chart for printing to image category. The result showed that low-key image separated by the image-adapted test chart showed more detail in the dark areas than a low-key image separated by the standard test chart, in the prints on a coated paper. The result from the adaptation of a control strip for sheet-fed offset showed that gray balance can be used as a control parameter for quality control in sheet-fed offset. / QC20100617

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an efficient multi- carrier modulation scheme, which has been adopted for several wireless stan- dards. Systems employing this scheme at the physical layer are sensitive to frequency offsets and that causes Inter Carrier Interference (ICI) and degra- dation in overall system performance of OFDM systems. In this thesis work, an investigation on impairments of OFDM systems will be carried out. Anal- ysis of previous schemes for cancellation of the ICI will be done and a scheme for estimating and compensating the frequency offset based on Unscented Ka- man Filter (UKF) and Extended Kaman Filter (EKF) will be implemented. Analysis on how the UKF improves the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR); and how well it tracks the frequency offset estimation under Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel and flat fading Rayleigh channel will be carried on.

Axial offset anomaly (AOA) in pressurized water reactors (PWR) refers to deviation of the measured neutron flux in the top half of the core from the predicted values. Among other difficulties, AOA reduces the shutdown margin, and may force the plant to reduce power output. AOA is believed to be caused by three related phenomena occurring in the core while operating at full power: sub-cooled nucleate boiling concentrated mainly in the upper half of the core, corrosion product deposition on the cladding surface (crud), and the deposition of boron within the porous crud layer in regions of vigorous sub-cooled boiling. This study replicates the conditions within the PWR primary coolant; specifically, the temperature, pressure, peak surface heat flux, coolant velocity and water chemistry are simulated in order to produce prototypical crud on an electrically heated Zircaloy-4 test element. At the conclusion of each test run, the heated Zircaloy-4 test element is rapidly isolated from the coolant in order to trap any soluble boron species that may be present in the crud layer. The results of this investigation indicate that prototypical crud with significant boron deposition can be produced. The deposited boron compound has been determined to be lithium tetraborate (Li2B4O7). Comparative experiments have been run to determine the effect of coolant pH, concentration and type of additives, and duration of exposure on the thickness of the crud deposit. The data obtained in this investigation can be used to validate mechanistic models for crud deposition and AOA in pressurized water reactors.

In this work, programmable analog techniques using floating-gate transistors have been developed to design precision analog circuits, low-power signal processing primitives and adaptive systems that learn on-chip. Traditional analog implementations lack programmability with the result that issues such as mismatch are corrected at the expense of area. Techniques have been proposed that use floating-gate transistors as an integral part of the circuit of interest to provide both programmability and the ability to correct for mismatch. Traditionally, signal processing has been performed in the digital domain with analog circuits handling the interface with the outside world. Such a partitioning of responsibilities is inefficient as signal processing involves repeated multiplication and addition operations that are both very power efficient in the analog domain. Using programmable analog techniques, fundamental signal processing primitives such as multipliers have been developed in a low-power fashion while preserving accuracy. This results in a paradigm shift in signal processing. A co-operative analog/digital signal processing framework is now possible such that the partitioning of tasks between the analog and digital domains is performed in a power efficient manner. Complex signal processing tasks such as adaptive filtering that learn the weight coefficients are implemented by exploiting the non-linearities inherent with floating-gate programming. The resulting floating-gate synapses are compact, low-power and offer the benefits of non-volatile weight storage. In summary, this research involves developing techniques for improving analog circuit performance and in developing power-efficient techniques for signal processing and on-chip learning.

In OFDM systems carrier frequency offset is observed due to Doppler shift and transmitter-receiver frequency mismatches. This offset induces ICI (Intercarrier Interference). In this thesis, repeated data methods and pilot-aided carrier frequency offset(CFO) estimation methods and windowing techniques are used to mitigate the frequency offset problem and a performance comparison is made between these ICI cancellation techniques. Repeated data methods use only half of the bandwidth for information transmission to eliminate the ICI at the receiver. We have implemented repeated data methods including Self cancellation scheme and Symmetric Symbol Repetition (SSR) schemes to overcome ICI problem. We have also implemented Adjacent Conjugate Symbol Repetiton (ACSR) and Symmetric Conjugate Symbol Repetiton (SCSR) methods to mitigate both phase rotations and ICI. CFO estimation and correction methods generally use pilot sequences. We implemented the &ldquo / Conventional Pilots&rdquo / and &ldquo / Clustered Pilots&rdquo / pilot-aided CFO estimation techniques for ICI cancellation. Furthermore, we also implemented a new scheme by using the odd symmetry between pilot symbols. Nyquist windowing techniques apply windowing at the receiver side. We have implemented second order polynomial class of Nyquist windows and Nyquist window with Franks pulse used to mitigate ICI. These ICI cancellation methods are compared in AWGN and multipath Rayleigh fading channel models in terms of BER and carrier to interference ratio. It is shown that repeated data methods shows better performances than pilot-aided CFO estimation methods with a cost of increased bandwidth usage especially in high SNR&rsquo / s.

In this thesis study, joint frequency offset and channel estimation methods for single-input single-output (SISO) systems are examined. The performance of maximum likelihood estimate of the parameters are studied for different training sequences. Conventionally training sequences are designed solely for the channel estimation purpose. We present a numerical comparison of different training sequences for the joint estimation problem. The performance comparisons are made in terms of mean square estimation error (MSE) versus SNR and MSE versus the total training energy metrics. A novel estimation scheme using complementary sequences have been proposed and compared with existing schemes. The proposed scheme presents a lower estimation error than the others in almost all numerical simulations. The thesis also includes an extension for the joint channel-frequency offset estimation problem to the multi-input multi-output systems and a brief discussion for multiple frequency offset case is also given.