Submitted by Fernanda Puga Santos null (ferpuga@gmail.com) on 2016-04-05T19:55:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_FINAL.pdf: 3778155 bytes, checksum: 12218385281bca2455fe3172e45e514c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Felipe Augusto Arakaki (arakaki@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-04-07T16:09:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 carvalho_fps_dr_prud.pdf: 3778155 bytes, checksum: 12218385281bca2455fe3172e45e514c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-07T16:09:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 carvalho_fps_dr_prud.pdf: 3778155 bytes, checksum: 12218385281bca2455fe3172e45e514c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Slope streaks são rastros escuros que se estendem por declives íngremes na superfície de Marte. Estes rastros representam um dos poucos processos geológicos ativos na superfície deste planeta. Atualmente, muitos pesquisadores os têm estudado com a finalidade de descobrir sua natureza, a qual permanece controversa. Além disso, os slope streaks clareiam com o tempo, fornecendo pistas sobre a deposição de poeira e também sobre a natureza do material da superfície. Embora exista um número considerável de pesquisadores que estudam esses rastros, a identificação destes ainda é realizada por especialistas manualmente, através de amostras de pequena dimensão. A existência de um número elevado destas estruturas na superfície de Marte, a necessidade de caracterizá-las e também de quantificar a sua evolução temporal, não pode continuar a ser efetuada simplesmente por amostragem e de uma forma manual. É neste contexto que esta pesquisa se enquadra. A proposta consiste em contribuir para a automação do processo de extração de informações em imagens da superfície de Marte, especificamente, extração de informações sobre slope streaks. Através do desenvolvimento de um método de detecção automática de slope streaks em imagens orbitais e, também, de um método automático para análise temporal da taxa de esmaecimento, este objetivo foi alcançado neste trabalho. O método de detecção desenvolvido baseia-se principalmente em Morfologia Matemática e faz uso de operadores morfológicos conectados para o pré-processamento das imagens, transformada top-hat, binarização pelo método de Otsu, afinamento e reconstrução geodésica, seguido por um filtro de fator de forma. O método para a análise temporal desenvolvido consiste em um algoritmo que calcula a taxa de contraste entre o interior e a área de vizinhança de um mesmo rastro, em imagens multi-temporais registradas. Os resultados obtidos com ambos os métodos foram bastante satisfatórios e possibilitaram extrair informações inovadoras a respeito do comportamento destes rastros na superfície de Marte. As duas ferramentas desenvolvidas mostraram-se robustas para serem aplicadas a grande escala e a um grande conjunto de imagens. / Slope streaks are typically dark, narrow and fan-shaped features that extend down slope on Mars surface. They are one of the most active and dynamic process observed on the planet’s surface. Dry and wet processes have been suggested for causing their formation but their origin is still unclear. Moreover, the streaks tend to fade with time, providing clues about dust settling and material properties. Studies that quantify some characteristics of these streaks are based on manual interactive procedures to delineate only a small portion of the available slope streaks and to measure their morphometric characteristics. The availability of a methodology to segment the streaks and to extract meaningful information would naturally increase the regional knowledge and the statistical significance, as a much larger amount of images from different locations could be analyzed, together with a more complete monitoring of the fading/appearance of the dark streaks. Thus, the purpose of this research is to contribute to the information extraction process from surface images of Mars. Hence, a method to automatically detect slope streaks and an algorithm to quantify the temporal fading of each streak over the years were developed. The detection method was based on morphological operators and it was used in a part of the methodology to quantify the fading of the streaks. The results of the detection method and the temporal fading algorithm were very satisfactory. Both methods are able to extract information about the behaviour of the slope streaks on the Martian surface. Finally, the two tools are robust enough to be applied on a large scale and a large set of images. / CAPES: 12791-13-0

Les amplifications optimales d'énergie de structures quasiment alignées dans le sens de l'écoulement sont calculées dans le cas d'un sillage parallèle, d'un sillage synthétique faiblement non-parallèle et du sillage d'un cylindre. Il a été observé que de très grandes amplifications d'énergie peuvent être supportés par ces sillages. L'amplification d' énergie s'accroît avec la longueur d'onde des perturbations en envergure à l'exception du sillage du cylindre pour lequel l'accroissement d'énergie est maximal pour λz ≈ 5 − 7 D. Les structures amplifiées de manière optimale sont les streaks fluctuant dans le sens de l’écoulement. Il est montré que ces streaks sont capables de supprimer complètement l'instabilité absolue d'un sillage parallèle lorsqu'ils sont déclenchés avec une amplitude finie. L'instabilité globale d'un sillage faiblement non-parallèle et celle du sillage d'un cylindre peuvent être complètement supprimées par des streaks d'amplitude modeste. L'énergie de contrôle requise pour stabiliser le sillage est très faible lorsque les perturbations optimales sont utilisées, et il est montré qu'elle est toujours plus faible que celle qui devrait être utilisée pour un contrôle uniforme en envergure (2D). Il est aussi montré que la dépendance du taux de croissance est quadratique et que, par conséquent, les classiques analyses de sensibilité au premier ordre ne permettent pas de prédire la grande efficacité de la technique de contrôle par streaks. La dernière partie de ce travail livre des résultats préliminaires sur l'étude expérimentale du contrôle par streaks dans le cas du sillage turbulent d'un corps 3D. Il est montré que les streaks forcés artificiellement dans la zone d'instabilité absolue de l'écoulement sont capables de modifier la dynamique du sillage. / We compute optimal energy growths leading to streamwise streaks in parallel, weakly non-parallel and the circular cylinder wakes. We find that very large energy amplifications can be sustained by these wakes. The energy amplifications increase with the spanwise wavelength of the perturbations except in the circular cylinder wake where maximum energy growths are reached for λz ≈ 5 − 7 D. The optimally amplified structures are streamwise streaks. When forced with finite amplitudes these streaks are shown, in parallel wakes, to be able to completely suppress the absolute instability. The global instability of the weakly non-parallel and the circular cylinder wakes can be completely suppressed with moderate streaks amplitudes. The energy required to stabilize the wake is much reduced when optimal perturbations are used, and it is shown to be always smaller than the one that would be required if a 2D control was used. It is also shown that the sensitivity of the global mode growth rate is quadratic and that therefore usual first order sensitivity analyses are unable to predict the high efficiency of the control-by-streaks strategy.

Schizolobium parahybum is native to Ecuador, South America, where plantations of this tree is being established. Development of these plantations has been unsuccessful due to a serious die-back disease. A survey on the role fungal pathogens might play in disease development were conducted by isolating possible pathogenic fungi from streaks in the xylem and from machete wounds from dying trees. The primary aim of this study was to identify the isolated fungi and to determine their pathogenicity to S. parahybum through a series of greenhouse trials. Ceratocystis fimbriata, C. moniliformis, Thielaviopsis basicola, Graphium penicillioides, Ophiostoma quercus and a Pesotum species were identified as possible pathogens of S. parahybum. Inoculation trials conducted with these fungi revealed that C. fimbriata and C. moniliformis were able to cause significant lesions on young S. parahybum trees under greenhouse conditions. These fungi were, however, not consistently isolated from diseased trees and the lesions in greenhouse trials were not consistently produced. Graphium penicillioides, O. quercus and the Pesotum species were unable to cause any notable lesions. Thielaviopsis basicola caused lesions that differed significantly from the control inoculations of S. parahybum. These results were intriguing, as T. basicola is not a known tree pathogen, but is predominantly known to cause disease of agricultural crops such as groundnuts and chicory. The ability of T. basicola to cause lesions on S. parahybum initiated the second part of the thesis that dealt with a population diversity study of this pathogen. Comparison of T. basicola isolates from Ecuador and other parts of the world with isolates from groundnut and chicory in South Africa revealed that the Ecuador isolates did not originate from S. parahybum but from the carrots that was used to isolate them. Although T. basicola from carrots were able to cause lesions on S. parahybum, we did not investigate this phenomenon further as this fell beyond the scope of this thesis. Seven polymorphic primers were developed for T. basicola using the ISSR-PCR technique. These primers were used to determine the population diversity of T. basicola from groundnuts and chicory populations in South Africa. Results showed a low diversity for both populations and suggest that T. basicola was introduced to South Africa. The markers were also used to compare isolates from the groundnut and chicory populations with T. basicola isolates from other hosts and geographical regions. This indicated that T. basicola may be native to Europe from where it possibly spread to other countries. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Microbiology and Plant Pathology / MSc / Unrestricted

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Statistics and athletic sports have always had a strong connection that many critics, fans and statisticians utilize to determine how successful a team or an individual player might be over an entire season or even throughout one’s career. The success of a player or team is often characterized by investigating the consistency that has been shown throughout the season or career, which has led to more investigation of the streakiness of players. Studies have been done to examine great streaks, such as Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak or Tiger Woods’ 142 consecutive cuts made streak, but what about the outstanding streak that occurred during the 1983-1984 NHL season? Wayne Gretzky, of the Edmonton Oilers, managed to showcase just how elite he was as a playmaker during that season. Gretzky produced a remarkable 51-game point streak, in which he recorded at least one goal or point in 51 consecutive games; a streak that has not received the recognition that it deserves. Using game-by-game data for the entire 1983-1984 NHL season for all players, the research looks at not only the evaluation of Gretzky’s streak, but also compares his production and streak to the remainder of the league. Gretzky demonstrated why he is one of the greatest players to ever step foot on the ice, and his elite status is shown throughout this analysis. Comparing Gretzky’s streak to that of DiMaggio’s was shown to be a little challenging but, some general conclusions were made based on the comparison of analyses that were performed; but without the proper statistics being readily available, it is hard to adequately dictate which streak is ultimately more impressive or more rare.

No description available.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Esta tese introduz uma nova metodologia para determinar a direÃÃo do vento sobre a superfÃcie dos oceanos utilizando tÃcnicas de processamento das imagens de Radar de Abertura SintÃtica (SAR, do inglÃs Synthetic Aperture Radar). A literatura relacionada demonstra um crescente interesse no processamento dessas imagens para detecÃÃo de alvos, classificaÃÃo de regiÃes, extraÃÃo de campos de ventos, monitoramento de derrames de Ãleo, aplicaÃÃes geofÃsicas e meteorolÃgicas. A extraÃÃo de campos de ventos em imagens SAR à uma tarefa desafiadora devido à contaminaÃÃo das mesmas por um ruÃdo oriundo do sistema de aquisiÃÃo, denominado speckle, que dificulta tarefas de processamento e interpretaÃÃo das mesmas. Portanto, esta tese propÃe metodologias de extraÃÃo da direÃÃo do vento por transformada de Fourier, transformadas wavelets e mÃtodos baseados em textura. As transformadas wavelets utilizadas para esta tarefa sÃo Gabor, ChapÃu Mexicano e o algoritmo à trous. Com relaÃÃo à anÃlise de textura utilizada, esta se baseia na informaÃÃo espacial da matriz de co-ocorrÃncia dos nÃveis de cinza para estimar a direÃÃo de padrÃes lineares em imagens contaminadas com speckle. Os experimentos foram realizados em imagens de textura sintÃticas, imagens do Ãlbum de Brodatz e imagens SAR sintÃticas e reais. Foi observado que os mÃtodos propostos foram capazes de estimar direÃÃes de padrÃes lineares e extrair campos de streaks de vento visÃveis em imagens SAR reais. As principais contribuiÃÃes desta tese sÃo: o mÃtodo proposto para estimaÃÃo de direÃÃo de ventos na superfÃcie do oceano e a extensÃo de tÃcnica jà existente na literatura, possibilitando assim a estimaÃÃo da velocidade dos ventos na faixa de 4 a 10 m/s. Os melhores resultados obtidos nesta tese foram alcanÃados utilizando o mÃtodo proposto que combina transformada wavelet e anÃlise de textura. / This thesis introduces a new methodology to determine the wind direction over the ocean surface using image processing techniques on SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images. Related literature demonstrates a growing interest in processing these images for target detection, region classification, wind field extraction, oil spill monitoring, geophysical and meteorological applications. Wind field extraction in SAR images is a challenging task due to contamination acquisition system by speckle noise, which makes difficult processing and interpretation tasks. Thus, this thesis proposes methods for wind direction estimation by applying image transforms, such as Fourier and wavelets and furthermore texture-based methods. The wavelet transforms used for this task are Gabor, Mexican Hat and the à trous algorithm. Concerning the texture approach, it is based on the co-occurrence matrix to estimate direction of linear patterns in speckled images. The experiments were performed on synthetic texture, Brodatz album, synthetic and real SAR images. It was observed that the proposed methods were able to estimate directions of linear patterns and extract wind fields from visible wind-induced streaks on SAR images. The main contributions of this thesis are: to propose methods for wind direction estimation on the ocean surface and to extend existing techniques in the literature in order to provide wind vector estimation in the range of 4 to 10 m/s. The best results of this tese were achieved with the proposed method that combines wavelet transform and texture analysis.

Experimental findings show that transition from laminar toturbulent ow may occur also if the exponentially growingperturbations, eigensolutions to the linearised disturbanceequations, are damped. An alternative non-modal growthmechanism has been recently identi fied, also based on thelinear approximation. This consists of the transient growth ofstreamwise elongated disturbances, with regions of positive andnegative streamwise velocity alternating in the spanwisedirection, called streaks. These perturbation are seen toappear in boundary layers exposed to signi ficant levels offree-stream turbulence. The effect of the streaks on thestability and transition of the Blasius boundary layer isinvestigated in this thesis. The analysis considers the steadyspanwise-periodic streaks arising from the nonlinear evolutionof the initial disturbances leading to the maximum transientenergy growth. In the absence of streaks, the Blasius pro filesupports the viscous exponential growth of theTollmien-Schlichting waves. It is found that increasing thestreak amplitude these two-dimensional unstable waves evolveinto three-dimensional spanwiseperiodic waves which are lessunstable. The latter can be completely stabilised above athreshold amplitude. Further increasing the streak amplitude,the boundary layer is again unstable. The new instability is ofdifferent character, being driven by the inectional pro filesassociated with the spanwise modulated ow. In particular, it isshown that, for the particular class of steady streaksconsidered, the most ampli fied modes are antisymmetric andlead to spanwise oscillations of the low-speed streak (sinuousscenario). The transition of the streak is then characterisedby the appearance of quasi-streamwise vorticesfollowing themeandering of the streak. Simulations of a boundary layer subjected to high levels offree-stream turbulence have been performed. The receptivity ofthe boundary layer to the external perturbation is studied indetail. It is shown that two mechanisms are active, a linearand a nonlinear one, and their relative importance isdiscussed. The breakdown of the unsteady asymmetric streaksforming in the boundary layer under free-stream turbulence isshown to be characterised by structures similar to thoseobserved both in the sinuous breakdown of steady streaks and inthe varicose scenario, with the former being the mostfrequently observed. <b>Keywords:</b>Fluid mechanics, laminar-turbulent transition,boundary layer ow, transient growth, streamwise streaks,lift-up effect, receptivity, free-stream turbulence, secondaryinstability, Direct Numerical Simulation.

<p>Experimental findings show that transition from laminar toturbulent ow may occur also if the exponentially growingperturbations, eigensolutions to the linearised disturbanceequations, are damped. An alternative non-modal growthmechanism has been recently identi fied, also based on thelinear approximation. This consists of the transient growth ofstreamwise elongated disturbances, with regions of positive andnegative streamwise velocity alternating in the spanwisedirection, called streaks. These perturbation are seen toappear in boundary layers exposed to signi ficant levels offree-stream turbulence. The effect of the streaks on thestability and transition of the Blasius boundary layer isinvestigated in this thesis. The analysis considers the steadyspanwise-periodic streaks arising from the nonlinear evolutionof the initial disturbances leading to the maximum transientenergy growth. In the absence of streaks, the Blasius pro filesupports the viscous exponential growth of theTollmien-Schlichting waves. It is found that increasing thestreak amplitude these two-dimensional unstable waves evolveinto three-dimensional spanwiseperiodic waves which are lessunstable. The latter can be completely stabilised above athreshold amplitude. Further increasing the streak amplitude,the boundary layer is again unstable. The new instability is ofdifferent character, being driven by the inectional pro filesassociated with the spanwise modulated ow. In particular, it isshown that, for the particular class of steady streaksconsidered, the most ampli fied modes are antisymmetric andlead to spanwise oscillations of the low-speed streak (sinuousscenario). The transition of the streak is then characterisedby the appearance of quasi-streamwise vorticesfollowing themeandering of the streak.</p><p>Simulations of a boundary layer subjected to high levels offree-stream turbulence have been performed. The receptivity ofthe boundary layer to the external perturbation is studied indetail. It is shown that two mechanisms are active, a linearand a nonlinear one, and their relative importance isdiscussed. The breakdown of the unsteady asymmetric streaksforming in the boundary layer under free-stream turbulence isshown to be characterised by structures similar to thoseobserved both in the sinuous breakdown of steady streaks and inthe varicose scenario, with the former being the mostfrequently observed.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Fluid mechanics, laminar-turbulent transition,boundary layer ow, transient growth, streamwise streaks,lift-up effect, receptivity, free-stream turbulence, secondaryinstability, Direct Numerical Simulation.</p>

No description available.

No description available.