The emergence of Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology application has yielded tremendous and vital impacts in the field of microwave wireless communications. These applications include military radar imaging, security screening, and tumour detection, especially for early detection of breast cancer. These indicators have stimulated and inspired many researchers to make the best use of this promising technology. UWB technology challenges such as antenna design, the problem of imaging reconstruction techniques, challenges of severe signal attenuation and dispersion in high loss material. Others are lengthy computational time demand and large computer memory requirements are prevalent constraints that need to be tackled especially in a large scale and complex computational electromagnetic analysis. In this regard, it is necessary to find out recently developed optimisation techniques that can provide solutions to these problems. In this thesis, designing, optimisation, development, measurement, and analysis of UWB antennas for near-field microwave imaging applications are considered. This technology emulates the same concept of surface penetrating radar operating in various forms of the UWB spectrum. The initial design of UWB monopole antennas, including T-slots, rectangular slots, and hexagonal slots on a circular radiating patch, was explicitly implemented for medical imaging applications to cover the UWB frequency ranging from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. Based on this concept, a new bow-tie and Vivaldi UWB antennas were designed for a through-the-wall imaging application. The new antennas were designed to cover a spectrum on a lower frequency ranging from 1 GHz - 4 GHz to ease the high wall losses that will be encountered when using a higher frequency range and to guarantee deeper penetration of the electromagnetic wave. Finally, both simulated and calculated results of the designed, optimised antennas indicate excellent agreement with improved performance in terms of return loss, gain, radiation pattern, and fidelity over the entire UWB frequency. These breakthroughs provided reduced computational time and computer memory requirement for useful, efficient, reliable, and compact sensors for imaging applications, including security and breast cancer detection, thereby saving more lives. / Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TET Fund) Supported by the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA)

El objetivo de esta Tesis Doctoral es estudiar diferentes herramientas para el manejo de plagas y enfermedades del cultivo de la platanera. Entre las herramientas que vamos a desarrollar, se van a analizar los compuestos orgánicos volátiles (COVs) fúngicos derivados de hongos entomopatógenos (HE) y nematófagos, como fuente de metabolitos con actividad antagónica contra el picudo negro (PN) de la platanera, Cosmopolites sordidus, para su control y manejo en el campo. Así mismo, vamos a estudiar las respuestas de cultivares de plataneras a quitosano, un polisacárido biodegradable, para evaluar su posible uso en el campo como estimulante y protector de las plantas frente a plagas y patógenos, como Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. El conjunto de capítulos de esta tesis pretende sentar las bases de una estrategia de manejo sostenible de plagas y enfermedades del cultivo de la platanera, basada en el uso de COVs derivados de hongos presentes de forma natural en los cultivos, en combinación con la suplementación de quitosano en el riego, para un efecto de protección y activación de las defensas de las plataneras antes de cualquier infección de plagas y/o enfermedades. El objetivo principal de esta Tesis Doctoral es encontrar nuevas fórmulas para la gestión integrada de plagas como Cosmopolites sordidus y enfermedades de la platanera en condiciones de campo. En esta Tesis Doctoral hemos ideado enfoques sostenibles para la gestión de las plagas y enfermedades de las plataneras. Nuestros objetivos son: a) Cosmopolites sordidus (picudo negro de la platanera, PN), la principal plaga de los cultivos de plátano y, b) el hongo del marchitamiento Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Raza Tropical 4 (FocTR4), agente causante de una nueva variante extremadamente virulenta de la enfermedad del “Mal de Panamá”, que se está extendiendo rápidamente por todo el mundo. Nuestras herramientas de gestión sostenible son: a) los hongos entomopatógenos (HE, conocidos por su uso como agentes de control biológico, ACBs) aislados de campos comerciales de plátanos, b) sus compuestos orgánicos volátiles (COVs) y, c) el quitosano, un compuesto biodegradable y elicitor de la inmunidad de las plantas con actividad antimicrobiana. Damos evidencia de que los COVs de los hongos agentes de control biológico son repelentes del PN. Pueden utilizarse en los cultivos de platanera mediante estrategias de push and pull para gestionar la plaga de forma sostenible. El quitosano puede utilizarse en el riego para prevenir las defensas de la platanera local y sistémicamente. Por lo tanto, este polímero, con probada actividad antimicrobiana frente a otros patógenos de marchitamiento de Fusarium spp., podría utilizarse contra la actual pandemia en las plataneras causada por FocTR4. La capacidad de inducir reguladores del crecimiento de las plantas sostiene también el papel fertilizante del quitosano. La inducción de compuestos relacionados con la respuesta sistémica adquirida (RSA) hace que el riego con quitosano sea una herramienta para manejar también las plagas de las plataneras sobre el suelo (PN) y las enfermedades (Sigatoka). De esta manera, los COVs y el quitosano podrían ayudar a reducir el uso de agroquímicos tóxicos en los cultivos de platanera en todo el mundo.

No description available.

The prevalence of wireless standards and the introduction of dynamic standards/applications, such as software-defined radio, necessitate the next generation wireless devices that integrate multiple standards in a single chip-set to support a variety of services. To reduce the cost and area of such multi-standard handheld devices, reconfigurability is desirable, and the hardware should be shared/reused as much as possible. This research proposes several novel circuit topologies that can meet various specifications with minimum cost, which are suited for multi-standard applications. This doctoral study has two separate contributions: 1. The low noise amplifier (LNA) for the RF front-end; and 2. The analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The first part of this dissertation focuses on LNA noise reduction and linearization techniques where two novel LNAs are designed, taped out, and measured. The first LNA, implemented in TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 0.35Cm CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) process, strategically combined an inductor connected at the gate of the cascode transistor and the capacitive cross-coupling to reduce the noise and nonlinearity contributions of the cascode transistors. The proposed technique reduces LNA NF by 0.35 dB at 2.2 GHz and increases its IIP3 and voltage gain by 2.35 dBm and 2dB respectively, without a compromise on power consumption. The second LNA, implemented in UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) 0.13Cm CMOS process, features a practical linearization technique for high-frequency wideband applications using an active nonlinear resistor, which obtains a robust linearity improvement over process and temperature variations. The proposed linearization method is experimentally demonstrated to improve the IIP3 by 3.5 to 9 dB over a 2.5–10 GHz frequency range. A comparison of measurement results with the prior published state-of-art Ultra-Wideband (UWB) LNAs shows that the proposed linearized UWB LNA achieves excellent linearity with much less power than previously published works. The second part of this dissertation developed a reconfigurable ADC for multistandard receiver and video processors. Typical ADCs are power optimized for only one operating speed, while a reconfigurable ADC can scale its power at different speeds, enabling minimal power consumption over a broad range of sampling rates. A novel ADC architecture is proposed for programming the sampling rate with constant biasing current and single clock. The ADC was designed and fabricated using UMC 90nm CMOS process and featured good power scalability and simplified system design. The programmable speed range covers all the video formats and most of the wireless communication standards, while achieving comparable Figure-of-Merit with customized ADCs at each performance node. Since bias current is kept constant, the reconfigurable ADC is more robust and reliable than the previous published works.

Dans un contexte de développement durable, la gestion des sols et des ressources en eau est un enjeu primordial non seulement d'un point de vue environnemental mais aussi socio-économique. L'humidité, la rugosité, la composition et la structure du sol sont des variables clés pour la compréhension et la modélisation des catastrophes naturelles telles que l'érosion, la sécheresse ou les inondations. Pour des sols nus agricoles (très propices au ruissellement), de nombreuses études ont déjà montré le potentiel des données RADAR acquises en bande C pour la cartographie de l'humidité et la rugosité du sol. Cependant l'application de ces méthodes dans un cadre opérationnel était limitée. Dans ce contexte, les travaux de cette thèse présentent un premier volet sur l'analyse de la sensibilité aux états de surface (EDS) du sol du signal en bande X du capteur TerraSAR-X à très haute résolution spatiale et temporelle. Différentes configurations TerraSAR-X ont été analysées et les résultats ont permis de définir les configurations instrumentales optimales pour caractériser chaque paramètre d'EDS du sol. La comparaison de la sensibilité du capteur TerraSAR-X à celle des capteurs en bande C montre que le capteur TerraSAR-X est sans conteste le plus adapté pour estimer et cartographier l'humidité du sol à des échelles fines (50 m²). Le second volet était de développer une méthode permettant d'estimer et de cartographier l'humidité des sols nus agricoles. Dans ce but, les méthodes d'inversion généralement utilisées en bande C ont été testées sur les données en bande X. La précision sur les estimations d'humidité issues de l'algorithme d'inversion du signal TerraSAR-X a été déterminée et l'applicabilité de la méthode sur de nombreux sites d'étude a été testée avec succès. Une chaine de traitements cartographiques allant de la détection des sols nus à l'estimation de l'humidité et ne nécessitant qu'une seule image TerraSAR-X a été développée. Cette chaine innovante de traitements cartographiques " automatique et autonome " devrait permettre d'utiliser les données TerraSAR-X pour cartographier l'humidité du sol en mode opérationnel.

The usage of autonomous vehicles is starting to appear in several different domains and the domain of public safety is no exception. Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) has created a research arena for public safety (WARA-PS) to explore experimental features, usages, and implementation of autonomous vehicles within the domain of public safety. Collaborating in the arena are several companies, universities, and researchers. This thesis examines, in collaboration with Combitech, a company partnered in WARA-PS, how the implementation of autonomous vehicles affects the sociotechnical system of a search and rescue operation during a drifting boat with potential castaways. This is done by creating a case together with domain experts, analyzing the sociotechnical system within the case using cognitive work analysis and then complementing the analyses with the unmanned autonomous vehicles of WARA-PS. This thesis has shown how the WARA-PS vehicles can be implemented in the case of a drifting boat with potential castaways and how the implementation affects the sociotechnical system. Based on the analyses and opinions of domain experts’ future guidelines has been derived to further the work with sociotechnical aspects in WARA-PS. / WARA-PS

本國為因應2018年亞太防制洗錢組織（APG）相互評鑑事宜，相關單位陸續參照國際規範，如防制洗錢金融行動工作組織（FATF）2012年發布之「防制洗錢及打擊資恐與武器擴散國際標準40項建議」、巴塞爾銀行監理委員會(BCBS)2014年發布之「健全有關防制洗錢及打擊資恐之風險管理」文件等，以及他國作法進行有關防制洗錢及打擊資恐法制規約、監管措施及自律規範等之修正，並促請義務機構強化執行，以期順利通過第三輪相互評鑑。 銀行向為洗錢及資恐犯罪喜好之金流管道，基於銀行提供之金融服務具安全性、便利性及多元化、全球化等優點，不僅吸引一般金融消費者與銀行緊密往來，亦同時受到不良分子之青睞，致金融體系資源易遭不當利用。銀行為金融體系之核心主體，負有防制洗錢及打擊資恐之義務與責任，本文爰就銀行業防制洗錢及打擊資恐實務切入，針對本國銀行應採行之因應措施基本架構進行探討。 本文將先介紹FATF之評鑑流程及方法論，以立下銀行進行防制洗錢及打擊資恐工作之目標，復就達成前開目標為方向，引述金融機構防制洗錢及打擊資恐機制之國際標準，繼而回歸國內外對銀行實際作為之法規要求，試行建構銀行防制洗錢及打擊資恐基本機制，末則就銀行於執行面可改善空間提出重點觀察建議。 隨著工業4.0、Bank3.0及Fintech（金融科技）之快速演進，銀行客戶樣貌及交易型態正在改變，健全防制洗錢及打擊資恐機制是所有銀行業共同面臨之進階版挑戰，本文謹提出銀行機制基本實務報告，俾作為開展細緻化措施之參考。另本文為一般性原則之探討，並非針對特定機構主體之描述，併此敘明。 / For the Mutual Evaluation which will be conducted by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) in 2018, basing on the following consulting international norms, such as “International Standards on combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation (The FATF Recommendations)” published by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2012, “Sound management of risks related to money laundering and financing of terrorism” published by Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in 2014 and foreign advanced practices, the Taiwan authorities have amended the legal system, laws and regulations, supervision measures and self-disciplines referred to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing(CTF). Meanwhile, every relevant entity is enhancing the prevent measures and internal control on AML/CFT (Counter-Financing of Terrorism) as well. The satisfactory result of the Third Round Mutual Evaluation will be expected. As people know, the banks are always the favorite cash flow channel of money laundering and terrorism financing, since the banks provide the financial services with advantages of safety, convenience, diversification and globalization, etc. Both general financial customers and criminals on ML/FT are attracted to make transactions with the banks. Thus, the financial system’s resources could be utilized improperly. Due to the role of the core of financial system, the banks should take the responsibility and bear the liability of Anti-Money Laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. In this paper, the primary framework on AML/CFT of domestic banks will be outlined according to the real practice. First, this paper has an introduction of mutual evaluation process and methodology in order to set the goal related to AML/CFT of the bank. Next, the model practices of international standards are presenting to achieve the goal for references. Then, this paper will focus on domestic and foreign regulatory requirements on banking, and try to construct the bank’s primary internal system of AML/CFT. Finally, there are some observations of the bank’s performance related to this issue. With the rapid evolution of Industry 4.0, Bank 3.0 and Fintech, the customers’ financial behaviors and transaction types are changing. Therefore, to keep sound internal system of AML/CFT is an advanced challenge to all the banks. This paper is trying to set a primary framework on AML/CFT of domestic banks, and to be taken reference for banks to start developing appropriate prevent measures. In addition, the statement of this paper is an approach to general principles, not indicating any specific institution.