Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-92). Also available via the Internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:51:43Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 santos_n_me_guara.pdf: 418632 bytes, checksum: 4f860ab8b61150a88cbfa52adf66369f (MD5) / Aplicações recentes de satélites artificiais, principalmente aquelas com finalidades geodinâmicas e altimétricas, requerem órbitas determinadas com bastante precisão. Em particular as marés terrestres alteram o geopotencial, causando perturbações adicionais no movimento do satélite. Tais perturbações, apesar de pequenas, têm sido detectadas. O presente trabalho trata de perturbações de órbitas de satélites artificiais devidas às marés terrestres. Ênfase é dada aos termos seculares e de longo período. O potencial foi desenvolvido em termos dos elementos orbitais e substituídos nas equações planetárias de Lagrange. Soluções analíticas estão apresentadas para casos particulares considerando os números de Love constantes. Um programa foi elaborado, e colocado a disposição do usuário, permitindo calcular, para um dado satélite, a amplitude e o período dos termos perturbadores mais significativos. / Recent applications of artificial satellites, mainly those of geodynamics and altimetric purposes, requires high precise orbit determination. Particularly, Earth tides change the geopotencial causing additional perturbation in the satellite orbital motion. Inspite of being very small such perturbations, has been detected. The present work concerns about orbit perturbations of artificial satellites due do terrestrial tides. Treatment of secular and long period terms is emphasized. The potencial was developed in terms of the orbital elements and substituted in the Lagrange equations. Analytical solutions are presented for particular cases considering the Love’s number as constant. A computer enabling to compute, for a given satellite, the amplitude and period of the more significant disturbing terms, was constructed and it is, at the disposal for users.

L’intégration récente des systèmes de communication numériques embarqués à bord des trains pour la gestion du trafic introduit de nouveaux problèmes de compatibilité électromagnétique dans le milieu ferroviaire, notamment, pour le système GSM-R « Global System for Mobile Communications - Railway» sur lequel se focalisent les travaux de la thèse. Ce système est un système numérique élaboré employant des protocoles de communication qui lui permettent de résister à certaines perturbations électromagnétiques. Ainsi, son immunité électromagnétique ne peut pas être étudiée selon les méthodes traditionnelles standardisées, puisqu’elles sont adaptées principalement à des systèmes analogiques. La thèse consiste à caractériser l’environnement EM ferroviaire d’une manière adaptée au contexte du système GSM-R. En effet, il faut préalablement connaitre les perturbations EM qu’il peut rencontrer à bord d’un train. Ainsi, nous avons exploité les méthodes fréquentielle et temporelle pour caractériser les perturbations EM que peut subir son signal utile sous des conditions normales d’opération. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que les perturbations EM transitoires qui apparaissent lors d’un mauvais contact entre la caténaire et le pantographe sont la source principale de perturbations EM pour le système GSM-R. Ainsi, nous avons étudié minutieusement leurs caractéristiques temporelles et d’amplitude à travers une étude statistique de chaque paramètre. Suite aux résultats obtenus, nous avons pu générer des signaux de test représentatifs de ce que peut voir le système GSM-R à bord d’un train avant d’exploiter ces signaux pour l’étude de l’immunité EM de ce système en laboratoire. / The management of the European railway traffic will be ensured by the use of train’s embedded communication systems, particularly the GSM-R (Global System for Mobile communications – Railways). This system is exposed to the EM interferences observed on board trains and its EM immunity has to be guaranteed. However, the immunity the GSM-R cannot be studied according to the current standardized methods mainly developed for the test of analog systems. The GSM-R is a digital communication system having the ability to stand to some EM interferences, and its immunity has to be performed according to new methodologies considering these particular characteristics.The aim of this work is to develop new methodologies to characterize the railway EM environment adapted to the context of the GSM-R communication system. Firstly, the frequency and temporal measurement methods have been used in order to characterize the EM interferences observed on the GSM-R antennas in railway environment. The obtained results have shown that the transient EM events taking place between the catenary and the pantograph are the main source of disturbances for the GSM-R system. In order to study the immunity of this system against transient EM disturbances, in the second part, we have characterized these transients in terms of time and amplitude parameters. In the following, a statistical study of each parameter has been performed, and we have developed signals for immunity tests statistically similar to the observed railway environment’s interferences. At the end, the test signals have been used in order to study the immunity of the GSM-R system in a laboratory context.

The potential benefits of autonomous satellite formation flying in such areas as high- resolution remote sensing, and sparse aperture radar, has stimulated interest in modeling the satellite environment for feasibility and simulation studies to help explore and define the technical challenges that must be solved in order to achieve successful autonomous satellite formations. The purpose of this paper is to develop and describe a numerical simulation of the orbital environment including central force field perturbations and atmospheric drag effects which will be a useful analytical tool for investigating issues relating to maintaining satellite formations in low-earth-orbit. Many of the studies done in this area confine their research to circular orbits, with and without perturbation effects. This study will investigate apply orbital dynamic equations to the problem of maintaining satellite formations in both circular and elliptical orbits, with and without the presence of J2 gravity perturbation effects and atmospheric drag. This effort is primarily focused on modeling the orbital mechanics of one and two satellites in the presence of J2 and drag perturbations This effort is being performed as part of a multi-disciplined University of Central Florida KnightSat project, sponsored by the Air Force, to develop a two-satellite formation in the nanosatellite class, for investigating issues related to using formation satellites for remote earth sensing, to develop three-dimensional mapping.

Introduction: Anxiety is induced by a perceived threatening situation and can impair the decision-making ability and maintenance of attention on relevant stimuli. The pre-frontal cortex (PFC) has been implicated in anxiety through the multiple network theory however, the PFC’s role in anxiety is poorly understood. Implementing visual perturbations increases PFC activity due to increased attentional demands, which is observed in younger adults. Due to increased attentional processes produced from visual perturbations, cortical activity can be altered. Methods: Twenty healthy young adults performed three treadmill walking tasks, without visual cues, with visual cues and with perturbations. Cortical activity was recorded with a 22-channel, 18 optode fNIRS cap (Dual Brite MKII; Artinis Medical Systems, Netherlands). Anxiety measurements included the state-trait anxiety inventory (Spielberger et al., 1971) and heart rate variability (polar hear rate monitor). A Friedman rank sum test was performed to determine differences observed in heart rate variability RMSSD (HrvRMSSD) and mean oxyhemoglobin concentration change, among gait conditions. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine effects of trait anxiety on HrvRMSSD for gait conditions. Spearman rank correlations where ran between anxiety measures and PFC activity. Results: No significant condition effect on mean oxyhemoglobin concentration change (χ2 = 3.9, p = 0.14) was found. There was a significant condition effect for HrvRMSSD (χ2 = 17.2, p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis showed a significant decrease between baseline and stepping (p = 0.003, r = 0.17) and baseline and stepping varied (p = 0.02, r = 0.24). No significant trait anxiety effects found on HrvRMSSD during baseline (p = 0.15), stepping (p=0.20) and stepping varied (p=0.08), between low and moderate trait anxiety. No correlations were found between anxiety measures and PFC activity. Significance: The present experiment shows that PFC activity does not alter in young adults between a gait and visually perturbed gait. Further, we observed no significant change in PFC activity when anxiety, measured by HrvRMSSD, increased with gait condition difficulty. These results did not support our hypotheses, but the results will help inform protocol decisions of future investigations.

Nous avons exploré les altérations cérébrales liées à l’âge, dans des conditions physiologiques ou pathologiques (maladie d’Alzheimer), à partir de deux modèles murins, SAM-P8 (souris à sénescence accélérée) et 5xFAD..Dans les deux cas, les animaux montrent des signes de neuroinflammation avec libération de la principale cytokine pro-inflammatoire IL-1β. Ces troubles sont sans conteste d’origine endogène, puisqu’ils n’ont pas été observés chez les témoins. Il faut souligner que les astrocytes 5xFAD ont été prélevés chez des nouveau-nés et par conséquent leur état inflammatoire signifie que la neuroinflammation est une des toutes premières manifestations de la pathologie, bien en amont de la formation des plaques amyloïdes.Dans toute pathologie complexe, les troubles sont la résultante d’un ensemble de processus pathologiques. Nous avons donc recherché les effets protecteurs de la pantéthine. Cette molécule naturelle de faible taille moléculaire, a démontré une action de protection dans plusieurs pathologies cérébrales. Dans la présente étude, le traitement des astrocytes et des souris par la pantéthine modère les altérations observées dans les deux modèles. En particulier, le traitement stimule l’expression de HIF-1α, via son action sur le cycle de Krebs et sur l’activité du protéasome.En conclusion, nous avons montré que la neuroinflammation est à la base du processus pathologique conduisant à la maladie d’Alzheimer et qu’elle se manifeste également au cours du vieillissement. La pantéthine est donc susceptible de contrecarrer le développement de la maladie, comme de tempérer les effets du vieillissement cérébral. / We used two mouse models to explore the age-related cerebral alterations, under physiological and pathological conditions (Alzheimer’s disease), i.e. senescence accelerated SAM-P8 and transgenic 5xFAD mice.In the two models, mice showed signs of neuroinflammation with release of the major inflammatory cytokine IL-1β. Such events were undoubtedly of endogenous origin as they did not occur in the controls. It should be underlined that, since 5xFAD astrocytes were collected in newborns, their inflammatory status means that neuroinflammation is a very early step of Alzheimer’s disease pathological process, upstream of β-amyloid accumulation.Since in a complex disease such as Alzheimer’s brain insults result not from a single cause but from multiple pathological processes, we explored the protective effects of pantethine, a low-molecular-weight, multifunctional agent which has been shown to exert protective effects in several neurodegenerative diseases through multiple convergent mechanisms. In our study, pretreatment of astrocytes and treatment of mice with pantethine moderated age-related alterations. Moreover, it enhanced HIF-1α expression via the modulation of the Krebs’ cycle and proteasomal activities. In addition, a genome wide transcriptomic analysis from hippocampus samples of 5xFAD mice showed that pantethine attenuated most of gene overexpression in transgenic vs WT mice.In conclusion, we found that neuroinflammation lays at the root of Alzheimer’s disease pathological process and is also present in aging mice. Pantethine, this natural and well-tolerated compound could therefore prevent the disease development and temper the deleterious aging effects.

The purpose of the current research was to examine how a novel balance task is learnt by individuals with a mature neurological system, and to investigate the responses of experienced hand balancers to mechanical and sensory perturbations. Balance in each posture was assessed by various techniques, including: traditional measures of centre of pressure, nonlinear time series analysis of centre of pressure, estimates of feedback time delay from cross correlations and delayed regression models, and calculation of small, medium, and large movement corrections. Data from this study suggests that the best balance metric for distinguishing between each of the balance conditions was the traditional balance measure of sway velocity. However, sway velocity cannot provide any further information on the underlying process of balance. Nonlinear measures of balance offer insight into the underlying deterministic processes that control balance, offering measures of system determinism, complexity, and predictability. Assessments of feedback time delay and movement corrections provide both an insight into the control of posture and help distinguish one condition from another. Both feedback time delay and movement corrections and magnitudes may be used simultaneously to delve further into the control of posture. Delayed regression models seem to be an appropriate and useful tool for estimating feedback time delays during balance. Findings support the use of the third term in the adapted regression model as a means of estimating the effect of passive stiffness on feedback time delay. Generally, with increased duration in handstand subjects displayed reduced sway as measured by traditional measures of balance. A more marked change in nonlinear measures of balance can be seen, with quicker reductions in variance for some nonlinear measures of balance than in the traditional measures. It may be that more pronounced changes in nonlinear measures represent changes in the subjects underlying process of postural control, whereas less pronounced changes in traditional measures relate more to their general ability or performance in the balance task.

Les gyroscopes laser à gaz constituent une solution technique de haute performances dans les problématiques de navigation inertielle. Néanmoins, pour de très faibles vitesses de rotation, les petites imperfections des miroirs de la cavité optique font que les deux faisceaux contra-propageant sont verrouillés en phase. En conséquence, les mesures en quadrature de leur différence de phase ne permettent plus de remonter directement aux vitesses de rotation à l'intérieur d'une zone autour de zéro, dite zone aveugle statique, ou, si l'on utilise une procédure d'activation mécanique, dite zone aveugle dynamique. Ce travail montre qu'il est néanmoins possible, en utilisant des méthodes issues du filtrage et de l'estimation, de remonter aux vitesses de rotation mêmes si ces dernières sont en zone aveugle. Pour cela, on part d'une modélisation physique de la dynamique que l'on simplifie par des techniques de perturbations singulières pour en déduire une généralisation des équations de Lamb. Il s'agit de quatre équations différentielles non-linéaires qui décrivent la dynamique des intensités et des phases des deux faisceaux contra-propageant. Une étude qualitative par perturbations régulières, stabilité exponentielle des points d'équilibre et applications de Poincaré permet de caractériser les zones aveugles statiques et dynamiques en fonction des imperfections dues aux miroirs. Il est alors possible d'estimer en ligne avec un observateur asymptotique fondé sur les moindre carrés récursifs ces imperfections en rajoutant aux deux mesures en quadrature celles des deux intensités. La connaissance précise de ces imperfections permet alors de les compenser dans la dynamique de la phase relative, et ainsi d'estimer les rotations en zone aveugle. Des simulations numériques détaillées illustrent l'intérêt de ces observateurs pour augmenter la précision des gyroscopes à gaz. / Gaz ring laser gyroscopes provide a high performance technical solution for inertial navigation. However, for very low rotational speeds, the mirrors imperfections of the optical cavity induce a locking phenomena between the phases of the two counter-propagating Laser beams. Hence, the measurements of the phase difference can no longer be used when the speed is within an area around zero, called lock-in zone, or,if a procedure of mechanical dithering is implemented, dithering lock-in zone. Nevertheless, this work shows that it is possible using filtering and estimation methods to measure the speed even within the lock-in zones. To achieve this result, we exploit a physical modeling of the dynamics that we simplify, using singular perturbation techniques, to obtain a generalization of Lamb's equations. There are four non-linear differential equations describing the dynamics of the intensities and phases of the two counter-propagating beams. A qualitative study by regular perturbation theory, exponential stability of the equilibrium points and Poincaré maps allows a characterisation of the lock-in zones according to the mirrors imperfections. It is then possible to estimate online, with an asymptotic observer based on recursive least squares, these imperfections by considering the additional measurements of the beam intensities. Accurate knowledge of these imperfections enables us to compensate them in the dynamic of the relative phase, and thus to estimate rotational speeds within the lock-in zones. Detailed numerical simulations illustrate the interest of those observers to increase the accuracy of gas ring laser gyroscopes.

Estudos de perturbações em sistemas gravitacionais no âmbito da Relatividade Geral vêm sofrendo grandes desenvolvimentos nos últimos anos, especialmente em face da evolução dos modernos detectores de ondas gravitacionais. Abordamos neste trabalho as perturbações de diferentes cenários. Principiamos com a métrica de Vaidya, utilizada para descrever espaços-tempos esfericamente simétricos e dependentes do tempo. Nossas simulações mostraram que as freqüências dos modos quasi-normais (MQN\'s) apresentam um novo efeito inercial para variações rápidas da função de massa, retornando depois ao comportamento adiabático. Em seguida, apresentamos um modelo para a evaporação de mini buracos negros por radiação de Hawking inspirado no cenário de criação destes objetos em aceleradores de partículas, previsto pelas novas teorias com dimensões extras. Nosso modelo, baseado na métrica de Vaidya n-dimensional, tornou possível a análise de MQN\'s resultando na possibilidade de se obter os parâmetros relevantes do buraco negro, como a sua massa inicial e o número de dimensões extras, a partir de medições experimentais. Finalmente, realizamos um estudo sobre uma nova solução denominada gravastar, proposta como um modelo alternativo para o estágio final de estrelas com grande massa. Obtivemos limites para os parâmetros da solução e verificamos a sua estabilidade frente a perturbações axiais, concluindo positivamente a respeito da possibilidade de se distinguir entre buracos negros e gravastares com base no seu espectro de MQN\'s. / Perturbative studies of gravitational systems in General Relativity have gone through big developments in the last years, especially due to the evolution of the modern gravitational wave detectors. We consider in this work different perturbations in different scenarios. Firstly we consider the Vaidya metric, mainly used to describe time-dependent spherically symmetric spacetimes. Our simulations show that the frequencies of the quasinormal modes (QNM\'s) present a new inertial effect for rapidly varying mass functions, returning afterwards to the adiabatic behavior. Next we present a model for evaporating mini black holes in particle accelerators, in the context of the new gravity models with extra dimensions. With our model, based on the n-dimensional Vaidya metric, we are able to perform a QNM analysis which results in the possibility of obtaining the parameters of the black hole, such as its initial mass and the number of extra dimensions, from the experimental measurements. Finally, we present a study of a new solution, the gravastar, proposed as an alternative model for the end state of massive stars. We obtain bounds for the parameters of the solution and verify its stability against axial perturbations. Our results indicate that the gravastar\'s QNM spectrum can indeed be used to distinguish a black hole from a gravastar.

Firstly, we establish the existence of a solution u epsilon concentrating along a curve Gammaepsilon near the non-degenerate Gamma, exponentially small in epsilon at any positive distance from the curve, provided epsilon is small and away from certain critical numbers. The concentrating curve Gammaepsilon will collapse to Gamma as epsilon &rarr; 0. / In this thesis, we consider the following problem 32Du-u+up= 0 and u&gt;0 in W , 6u6n= 0 on 6W, where O is a bounded domain in R2 with smooth boundary, epsilon is a small positive parameter, nu denotes the outward normal of O and p > 1. Let Gamma be a straight line intersecting orthogonally with &part;O at exactly two points. We use the infinite dimensional Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction method, introduced by M. del Pino, M. Kowalczyk and J. Wei in [14], to deal with the non-invertibility caused by the critical eigenvalues of the linearized operator in the perturbed problems and then construct interior concentration layers near Gamma, which interact with the boundary. Moreover, the method of successive improvements of the approximation helps us decompose the interaction between the boundary and the interior layers. / Secondly, for any given integer N with N &ge; 2 and for small epsilon away from certain critical numbers, we construct another solution uepsilon exhibiting N concentration layers at mutual distances O(epsilon&mid; ln epsilon&mid;), whose concentration set will approach the non-degenerate and non-minimal Gamma as epsilon &rarr; 0, provided that the exponent p &ge; 2. Asymptotic location of these layers is governed by a Toda type system. / Yang, Jun. / "July 2007." / Adviser: Juncheng Wei. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0357. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-136). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.