Research in radiotherapy for cancer treatment focuses on finding methods that can improve the compromise between tumour cell inactivation versus damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. As new radiation modalities such as proton therapy become accessible for everyday clinical practice, a better understanding of the variation in biological response of the tumour and healthy tissues would improve treatment planning to achieve optimal outcome. The development of radiobiological models capable of accurate predictions of biological effectiveness is needed. Existing radiation quality descriptors such as absorbed dose and LET are insufficient to explain variation in biological effectiveness for different treatment modalities. The stochastic nature of ionizing radiation creates discrete patterns of energy deposition (ED) sites which can now be analysed through sophisticated computer simulations (e.g. Monte Carlo track structure codes). This opens the possibility to develop a nanometre characterization of radiation quality based on the spatial cluster patterns of ED. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the track structure (ED spatial pattern) properties of several radiation qualities at a micro- and nanometric scale while exploring their influence in biological response through correlations with published experimental data. This work uses track structure data simulated for a set of 15 different radiation qualities: 4 commonly used brachytherapy sources, 6 different proton energies, 4 different carbon ion energies, and 60Co photons used as reference radiation for quantification of biological effectiveness. At a micrometre level, the behaviour of the microdosimetric spread in energy deposition for target sizes of the order of cell nuclei was analysed. The degree of the influence it had in the biological response was found to be negligible for photon sources but for protons and carbon ions the impact increased with decreasing particle energy suggesting it may be a confounding factor in biological response. Finally, this thesis outlines a framework for modelling the relative biological effectiveness based on the frequency distribution of cluster order as a surrogate for the nanometre classification for the physical properties of radiation quality. The results indicate that this frequency is a valuable descriptor of ionizing radiation. The positive correlation across the different types of ionizing radiation encourages further development of the framework by incorporating the behavior of the microdosimetric spread and expanding tests to other experimental datasets.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Telemetry operation is used extensively on a typical Department of Defense (DOD) test range to transfer data from an airborne transmitter to a ground receiver. The conventional telemetry systems employed are usually narrow-band systems. When a large number of airborne transmitters need to transfer data simultaneously to a ground station, a spread spectrum modulation scheme can be used. The drawback of such a scheme, however, is the large emission bandwidth required. The present frequency channeling plans in the telemetry band do not support frequency approval of large bandwidth data telemetry systems. However, a key requirement for obtaining the frequency approval can be satisfied if it can be shown that the spread spectrum modulated signal does not interfere with other systems in the same band. That is, the spread spectrum telemetry systems (SSTS’s) are feasible if these systems are electromagnetically compatible with the existing narrow-band telemetry receivers (NBTR’s) in their immediate environment. The electromagnetic compatibility (EMC between the SSTS transmitters and the conventional NBTR would promise the beginning of a new era for the telemetry operations on a DOD test range. This paper develops a methodology to establish the EMC between multiple airborne transmitters of an SSTS employing the code division multiple access (CDMA) technique and a ground-based conventional NBTR on a typical DOD test range operating simultaneously in the same band. The paper calculates the electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels between the SSTS and the NBTR to establish the EMC between the two systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / In this paper, the basic ideas of advanced Spread Spectrum Unified Tracking Telemetry & Command System are introduced, the approaches and strategies to reject narrowband interference, multiple access interference and multipath interference are discussed. With effective interference-rejection, the safety and robustness of SS-UTTCS will be improved enormously.

Tropical wildfires account for up to 93% of global burnt area and approximately 85% of the resulting carbon emissions, yet are significantly under-represented in existing fire models. These models are predominantly process-based, require a multitude of input datasets, parameters and calculations, and are difficult to reproduce or use independently from a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM). The aim of this thesis is to develop empirical parameterisations of tropical fire occurrence and spread that represent an improvement in accuracy over existing models and that can be easily implemented both as standalone models or within a DGVM. These models are based on well-documented relationships from the literature. An index of potential fire is produced based on the observed peak of fire activity at intermediate levels of productivity and aridity. This can be converted into expected fire counts using a simple, observation-derived parameter map. Fire sizes have been shown to follow an approximately fractal distribution in a range of ecosystems, which is used to develop a new burnt area model. Replacing the fire count and burnt area calculations of existing fire models with these new parameterisations improves the spatial distribution of the resulting estimates, while giving temporally comparable predictions to the original models. The magnitude of the resulting burnt area estimates is also improved. The use of empirical fire modelling is therefore a viable alternative to current process-based methods, and makes practical use of theories that are well-documented in the literature. These models require few input variables and can be easily incorporated into a DGVM. However, further work to improve the temporal accuracy and dynamicity of these models would be beneficial, as would a method to link these models to parameterisations of combustion and trace gas emissions.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 29-November 02, 1990 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Various PN codes for use in TTC spread-spectrum systems are considered. The evaluation is based on peak magnitudes and amplitude distributions of both the even and the odd autocorrelation and crosscorrelation functions. Furthermore the influence of the phase of a sequence on the correlation parameters is studied, multiple-access characteristics in terms of the total interference parameter are evaluated and synchronous as well as asynchronous code generation is considered.1

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / NASA's Space Network (SN) provides both single access (SA) and multiple access (MA) services through a pre-scheduling system. Currently, a user's spacecraft is incapable of receiving service unless prior scheduling occurred with the control center. NASA is interested in efficiently utilizing the time between scheduled services. Thus, a demand assignment multiple access (DAMA) service study was conducted to provide a solution. The DAMA service would allow the user's spacecraft to initiate a service request. The control center could then schedule the next available time slot upon owner approval. In this paper, the basic DAMA service request design and integration is presented.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / At present, multiple mobile targets will be remote controlled in many remote control and telemetry system, in which multiple access technology will be applied. This paper proposes a communication scheme to remote control multiple mobile targets using Coded-Division Multiple Access(CDMA) technique. It's feasibility, advantage and shortcoming are analyzed. Moreover, the key techniques of Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum(DS/SS) system, i.e. the correlation detection and delay lock-on techniques, are studied and stimulated on the experimental model. The results of theoretical analysis show that the CDMA system has the peculiar advantage over the conventional multiple access system, such as FDMA and TDMA.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Parameterized data from ARTM channel sounding test flights are used to derive a parameter-based estimate of the scattering function. The Doppler bandwidth and Doppler spread, important measures of channel dynamics, can be estimated from such a scattering function. Data collected from ARTM Flight 11 suggest that the Doppler bandwidth is larger than 6.7 Hz. Even for very small collections of parameterized data, surprising agreement is shown to non-parametric scattering function estimates. This confirms modeling assumptions and offers a way to achieve significant reductions of storage requirements.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / In any satellite communication, the Doppler shift associated with the satellite’s position and velocity must be calculated in order to determine the carrier frequency. If the satellite state vector is unknown then some estimate must be formed of the Doppler-shifted carrier frequency. One elementary technique is to examine the signal spectrum and base the estimate on the dominant spectral component. If, however, the carrier is spread (as in most satellite communications) this technique may fail unless the chip rate-to-data rate ratio (processing gain) associated with the carrier is small. In this case, there may be enough spectral energy to allow peak detection against a noise background. In this paper, we present a method to estimate the frequency (without knowledge of the Doppler shift) of a spread-spectrum carrier assuming a small processing gain and binary-phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation. Our method relies on a simple, averaged discrete Fourier transform along with peak detection. We provide simulation results indicating the accuracy of this method. In addition, we will describe an all-digital hardware design based around a Motorola DSP56303 and high-speed A/D which implements this technique in real-time. The hardware design is to be used in NMSU’s implementation of NASA’s demand assignment, multiple access (DAMA) service.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 13-16, 1986 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Predetection recording of spread-spectrum (SS) signals such as GPS transmissions is a desirable objective for both users and developers of equipment designed to receive such signals. (GPS user-equipment development is a lengthy process during which signal simulators are only partially useful.) Upon playback, GPS signals are used by the same or modified receivers so that acquisition, processing, detection and tracking loops can be altered to optimize the receiver parameters. Development of predetect SS signal recording systems is difficult to achieve in practice. Such systems not only must be of suitable phase linearity to preserve the signal content to be extracted but sometimes must also preserve the exact signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) characteristics of the recorded signals. Existing conventional test equipment is unsuitable for deriving value judgments of the quality of a predetect recording system’s output because the SS signal has a negative SNR. This paper reveals that it is possible to use, for this purpose, tape recorders now available on many test ranges in combination with auxiliary equipment similar to that designed for the U.S. Navy’s TRIDENT Program (recording C/A-code data from in-flight missile translators). The basic techniques are described in some detail to enable potential users to understand the necessary equipment concepts and evaluate the author’s approach in terms of their own applications.