This thesis investigates the effects of rangeland management systems on savanna ecosystems under different environmental conditions in Botswana, Southern Africa. The soil sampling and vegetation assessment were conducted in twenty–three transects located in communal and ranching grazing lands across three sites. Pastoralists were also interviewed on vegetation change on their respective grazing lands. Soil texture, pH, bulk density and soil organic carbon differed between sites, but not between communal and ranching lands. Soil organic carbon was positively affected by soil clay content. The herbaceous vegetation composition showed heterogeneity between sites, but Matlolakgang and Xanagas rangelands were in poor condition, particularly the communal grazing land that had high cover of increasers II species. Higher herbaceous biomass was observed in ranches than communal lands and biomass also increased with increasing soil organic carbon. Bush encroachment was observed in communal and ranching grazing lands at Matlolakgang and Xanagas, but not Goodhope. Woody plant cover, density and diversity increased with decline in soil clay content, but not linearly. Pastoralists indicated that herbaceous vegetation compositions had changed in some areas, with increase of unpalatable grass species and bush encroachment especially in communal land. Pastoralists considered bush encroachment a problem as it suppress herbaceous vegetation productivity, but they also considered woody vegetation as a valuable grazing resource. The long-term indicators of ecosystem degradation (soil and woody cover) showed that communal and ranching grazing did not affect the savanna ecosystem differently. This is contrary to assumptions of Tribal Grazing Land Policy of Botswana, which promote ranching as a more sustainable management system. The results revealed that rainfall and soil clay strongly influence rangeland condition. These results have implications for the management policies of communal grazing lands throughout sub-Saharan Africa and in similar arid habitats across the world.

Image based lighting, (IBL), is a computer graphics technique for creating photorealistic renderings of synthetic objects such that they can be placed into real world scenes. IBL has been widely recognized and is today used in commercial production pipelines. However, the current techniques only use illumination captured at a single point in space. This means that traditional IBL cannot capture or recreate effects such as cast shadows, shafts of light or other important spatial variations in the illumination. Such lighting effects are, in many cases, artistically created or are there to emphasize certain features, and are therefore a very important part of the visual appearance of a scene. This thesis and the included papers present methods that extend IBL to allow for capture and rendering with spatially varying illumination. This is accomplished by measuring the light field incident onto a region in space, called an Incident Light Field, (ILF), and using it as illumination in renderings. This requires the illumination to be captured at a large number of points in space instead of just one. The complexity of the capture methods and rendering algorithms are then significantly increased. The technique for measuring spatially varying illumination in real scenes is based on capture of High Dynamic Range, (HDR), image sequences. For efficient measurement, the image capture is performed at video frame rates. The captured illumination information in the image sequences is processed such that it can be used in computer graphics rendering. By extracting high intensity regions from the captured data and representing them separately, this thesis also describes a technique for increasing rendering efficiency and methods for editing the captured illumination, for example artificially moving or turning on and of individual light sources.

Background Every year about 2,500 patients in Sweden undergo surgery for heart valve disease, primarily in the aortic valve.  In contrast to the mitral valve, which can be repaired in 70% of the cases, the aortic valve is normally replaced by a mechanical or biological prosthesis. A mechanical heart valve (MHV) necessitates lifelong anticoagulation treatment with a vitamin K antagonist, most commonly warfarin, due to the high thrombogenicity of the prosthesis. The quality of the warfarin treatment is crucial in these patients. Compared to other countries, treatment quality in Sweden is very high; nonetheless, there is always room for improvement. One of the ways to achieve this improvement is to implement computerized dosing assistance. Treatment recommendations for anticoagulation intensity are based on few and old studies, making these recommendations uncertain. There is therefore a need for studies designed to establish the appropriate level of anticoagulation therapy. Aim The aim of these studies was to investigate the efficacy and safety of anticoagulation treatment among patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses in Sweden; to assess whether computerized dosing can increase the treatment quality; to investigate the influence of the treatment quality, measured by Time in Therapeutic Range (TTR) and INR variability, on the risk of complications and, finally, to establish the optimal intensity of anticoagulation treatment in this group of patients. Methods Data were obtained from AuriculA – a national quality registry established in 2006, which currently includes approximately 50% of all patients treated with oral anticoagulation in Sweden. Study II used only data from AuriculA. 769,933 warfarin-dosing suggestions proposed by the dosing algorithm in AuriculA were analysed. Accepted dose suggestions (590,939) were compared with 178,994 manually-changed doses in regard to the resultant INR value, measured as mean error (deviation from target INR) and hit rate (number of INR samples within the target range 2-3). In study III, AuriculA was used to identify patients in Sundsvall and Malmö in the period 2008 – 2011 who were receiving warfarin for a mechanical heart valve prosthesis, as well as to retrieve their INR data. Data on background characteristics and bleedings or thromboembolic complications were manually retrieved from medical records by two investigators.  A total of 534 patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses were divided into quartiles based on TTR and were compared regarding the risk of complications. For Studies I and IV, data from AuriculA were merged with the Swedish National Patient Register, SWEDEHEART/ Heart surgery, and the Swedish Cause of Death Register, comprising in total 77,423 patients on warfarin with 217,804 treatment years. Every treatment period registered in AuriculA was given an individual identification number. During the study period a patient could have any number of treatment periods. The number of complications in total and in different patient groups within the study population was investigated. Complications were defined by ICD-10 codes. Major bleeding was defined as an event necessitating hospital treatment and given a discharge diagnosis with one of the ICD-10 codes reflecting bleeding, as listed in the Appendix. Bleeding events were divided into intracranial, gastrointestinal and other bleedings. Thromboembolic complications consist of venous events (deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, venous stroke) or arterial events (stroke, TIA, acute myocardial infarction, peripheral arterial embolism). Data were analysed using both simple, descriptive statistical methods and various tests such as Mann-Whitney (or two sample Wilcoxon), T-test, Chi 2 test, ANOVA, multivariate analysis with logistic regression and survival analysis with Cox Regression with proportional hazard assumption. Results Treatment quality  Mean TTR among all patients in Study I was 76.5% whereas patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses had a TTR of 74.5%. The annual incidence of major bleeding or thromboembolic events among all patients was 2.24% and 2.65%, respectively. The incidence of intracranial bleeding was 0.37% per year in the general population and 0.51% among patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses, who also had a higher bleeding rate in total (3.37% per year). Both the mean and median errors were smaller (0.44 vs. 0.48 and 0.3 vs. 0.4, respectively) and the hit rate was higher (0.72 vs. 0.67) when the dose suggested by the algorithm was accepted, compared to when it was manually changed. TTR  In Study III there was no significant difference in the risk of thromboembolism regardless of TTR level. Risk of bleeding in quartiles I and II was more than two times higher than in the quartile with TTR >82.9. In Study IV, lower TTR (≤70%) was associated with a significantly higher rate of complications when compared with TTR >70%. Bleeding risk was higher in the group with lower TTR (HR=2.43, CI 2.02-2.89, p<0.001). After dividing patients into TTR quartiles, the rate of complications in total was significantly higher in quartiles I to III compared with quartile IV, which had the highest TTR. Risk of thromboembolism, major bleeding and death was higher in the first and second quartile compared to the quartile with the highest TTR. INR variability  Higher INR variability above mean (≥0.40) was related to a higher rate of complications compared with lower INR variability (<0.40) as shown in Study IV. Bleeding risk was higher in the group with INR variability ≥0.40 (HR = 2.15, CI 1.75-2.61, p<0.001). Comparison of quartile IV, which had the lowest INR variability, with the other three revealed that quartiles I and II, which had the highest INR variability, had significantly worse outcomes for all complications except for thromboembolic events, plus also death in quartile II. TTR and INR variability combined  High variability and low TTR combined was associated with a higher risk of bleedings (HR 2.50, CI 1.99-3.15), death (3.34, CI 2.62-4-27) and thrombosis (1.55, CI 1.21-1.99) compared to the best group. Level of anticoagulation Higher warfarin treatment intensity (mean INR 2.8-3.2 vs. 2.2-2.7) was associated with a higher rate of bleedings (HR 1.29, CI 1.06-1.58), death (1.73, CI 1.38-2.16) and complications in total (1.24, CI 1.06-1.41) after adjustment for MHV position, age and comorbidity. Conclusion Warfarin treatment quality is crucial for patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses. Computerized dosing assistance could help maintain high warfarin treatment quality. Well-managed treatment with TTR ≥70% and INR variability below mean <0.40 is associated with a lower risk of serious complications compared with a lower TTR and higher INR variability. No benefit of higher warfarin treatment intensity was found for any valve type or position.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The US Air Force is required to protect the lives of individuals and property in areas potentially hazardous as a result of launch vehicle failures occurring from Vandenberg AFB, California. This paper describes the application of modern telemetry processing equipment to the Range Safety function.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Boost phase interception of ballistic missiles is envisioned as the primary response of the layered defense architecture implemented in the ballistic missile defense system. A limited time frame in which to take action and the necessity to implement hit-to-kill technology in the kill vehicle counterbalances the many advantages of boost phase interception. Direct hit missile technology is constrained by the requirement to minimize miss distance to a negligible amount between the kill vehicle and optimum aimpoint on the target. This thesis examines kill vehicle effectiveness, which is tantamount to miss distance, as a function of both the kill vehicle maximum acceleration capability and the guidance system time constant necessary to destroy a target. The kill vehicle guidance system is modeled in MATLAB as a fifth-order binomial series with proportional navigation. The simulation examines the effect of an accelerating target attributed to powered flight and aimpoint displacement caused by a shift in tracking point from the target plume to the payload when resolution occurs. The kill vehicle minimum requirements as indi-cated by the simulation include a lateral acceleration capability of four times the target acceleration and a guidance system time constant that is less than one-tenth the estimated flight time. / Lieutenant, Canadian Navy

The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to identify the self-perceived leadership styles of college academic advisors and to explore the variance in the perceived leadership styles based on demographic information such as academic advising approaches, institutional type, age, years of experience, and gender. Participants were 225 college advisors from among 5,066 members of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) during the 2013-2014 academic year who met study criteria and whose email invitation to complete an online survey was presumably delivered, rendering a 4.44% response rate. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Version 5X (MLQ 5X) with five supplemental questions was used for data collection The composite score for leadership style served as the dependent variable, and advising approach, institutional type, age, years of experience, and gender served as the independent variables for the study. Descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, and a factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. The descriptive statistics for this study revealed that college academic advisors represent all points along the entire spectrum of the Full Range Model of Leadership continuum employing different leadership behaviors based on the situation. The descriptive data were supported by the frequency distributions per case which identified transformational leadership as the perceived dominant leadership style for the college academic advisors in this study. A priori to conducting the factorial ANOVA, Leneve’s test for homogeneity of variance indicated a statistically significant coefficient, thus violating the assumption of data normality and rendering the ANOVA findings uninterpretable. An implication of this study is that transformational leadership is the most desired leadership style of the Full Range Model of Leadership for college academic advisors. If this is true, professional development activities for college academic advisors should focus on strengthening transformational leadership behaviors/techniques including with whom and when this leadership style should be employed compared to the other Full Range Model of Leadership styles

Le phénotypage consiste à caractériser les plantes et leur comportement en vue de la sélection génétique. Cette étude a évalué le potentiel de l'imagerie hyperspectrale de proximité pour répondre à ces besoins. Elle s'appuie sur le lien existant entre la physiologie des plantes et leurs propriétés optiques. Cette étude a montré qu'il est possible de retrouver la réflectance des feuilles en dépit d'un éclairage naturel variable. La procédure de correction mise en place permet de retrouver la réflectance vraie de feuilles à plat et introduit un effet additif (dû à la réflexion spéculaire), un effet multiplicatif (dû au niveau d'éclairement) et un effet non linéaire (dû aux réflexions multiples) sur les feuilles inclinées des plantes au champ. Cependant, nous avons montré également que, grâce à des pré-traitements des spectres adéquats et à la PLS (Partial Least Square regression), la concentration en azote est accessible à partir de la réflectance (400-1000~nm) de feuilles fraîches sur pied. L'étude de spectres simulés a montré que la non prise en compte des réflexions multiples dans l'étalonnage d'un modèle conduisait à une surestimation de la concentration en azote des feuilles subissant des réflexions multiples. Enfin, cette étude a illustré l'intérêt de l'imagerie hyperspectrale de proximité par rapport à la spectrométrie ponctuelle. Le fait d'avoir une image, combiné à la haute résolution spatiale permet d'obtenir des données plus représentatives de la parcelle et de calculer une vitesse de fermeture de couvert. La réalisation de cartographies d'azote permet de suivre la concentration en azote dans différents étages foliaires ou parties d'une même feuille. / Henotyping consists in characterising plants and their behavior with the aim of the genetic selection. This study estimated the potential of the close-range hyperspectral imaging to meet these needs. It leans on the link existing between plant physiology and their optical properties. This study showed that it is possible to find leaf reflectance in spite of a variable natural lighting. The developed correction procedure allows finding the true reflectance of flat leaves and introduces an additive effect (due to specular reflection), a multiplicative effect (due to illumination level) and a not linear effect (due to the multiple reflections) on inclinated leaves of plants in the field. However, we also showed that, thanks to adequate preprocessing of the spectra and to PLS (Partial Least Square regression), the nitrogen concentration is accessible from the reflectance (400-1000~nm) of fresh leaves on standing plants. The study of simulated spectra showed that the not consideration of the multiple reflections in the calibration of a model lead to an overestimation of the nitrogen concentration leaves undergoing multiple reflections. Finally, this study illustrated the interest of close-range hyperspectral imaging with regard to the punctual spectrometry. The fact of having an image, combined with the high spatial resolution allows to obtain more representative data of the plot and to calculate a speed of cover closure. Nitrogen mappings allow following the nitrogen concentration in various leaf level or parts of the same leaf.

Enhancing low light videos has been quite a challenge over the years. A video taken in low light always has the issues of low dynamic range and high noise. This master thesis presents contribution within the field of low light video enhancement. Three models are proposed with different tone mapping algorithms for extremely low light low quality video enhancement. For temporal noise removal, a motion compensated kalman structure is presented. Dynamic range of the low light video is stretched using three different methods. In Model 1, dynamic range is increased by adjustment of RGB histograms using gamma correction with a modified version of adaptive clipping thresholds. In Model 2, a shape preserving dynamic range stretch of the RGB histogram is applied using SMQT. In Model 3, contrast enhancement is done using CLAHE. In the final stage, the residual noise is removed using an efficient NLM. The performance of the models are compared on various Objective VQA metrics like NIQE, GCF and SSIM. To evaluate the actual performance of the models subjective tests are conducted, due to the large number of applications that target humans as the end user of the video.The performance of the three models are compared for a total of ten real time input videos taken in extremely low light environment. A total of 25 human observers subjectively evaluated the performance of the three models based on the parameters: contrast, visibility, visually pleasing, amount of noise and overall quality. A detailed statistical evaluation of the relative performance of the three models is also provided.

The purpose of the study was to quantify the relative contribution of low back flexibility and hamstring flexibility in the sit and reach test item of the AAHPERD Health Related Fitness Test in order to examine the validity of the sit and reach test. Subjects were 100 female students, 13 to 15 years of age in physical education classes. Hamstring flexibility was measured using the Leighton flexometer. Spinal mobility was measured using a tape measure. The sit and reach test was performed according to instructions given in the AAHPERD Test Manual. Data were analyzed using correlation, linear regression, and multiple regression. Conclusions of the investigation were (1) hamstring flexibility is moderately related to the sit and reach test, (2) low back flexibility has a very small relationship to the sit and reach test, and (3) the sit and reach test is an inadequate measure of low back and hamstring flexibility.

The purpose of this study was to further investigate the relationship between patterns of shoulder movement and muscular response. Thirteen females were tested against maximal manual resistance in twelve different patterns, eight straight plane, and four diagonal. Five of the six subjects who met established kinematic criteria were used for electromyographic (EMG) analysis of the anterior deltoid (AD), the middle deltoid, the posteroir deltoid (PD), and the pectoralis major. No significant differences were found between number of muscles solicited or duration of muscular effort during the different movements. Maximal EMG was significantly higher for the AD in abduction and in flexion than in the other patterns, and for the PD in diagonal flexion with abduction and in transverse abduction.