The southern pine beetle (SPB) poses a significant threat to pine forests of the southeastern US. Pre-commercial thinning (PCT) is a commonly used silvicultural practice to mitigate and prevent SPB spread in young southern pine stands. Typically, PCT represents an added management cost to landowners and thinned material is not utilized for forest products. Increased demand for woody biomass energy may provide landowners and harvesting contractors an opportunity to utilize PCT residues as a woody biomass energy feedstock, which may wholly or partially offset PCT costs. However, little information is available regarding harvestable biomass quantities in PCT stands and few studies have assessed harvesting productivity and costs in very young pine stands. To develop estimates of biomass abundance in PCT candidate stands, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stands aging 5 to 12-years old, and enrolled in the Virginia Department of Forestry Pine Bark Beetle Prevention Program (VDOF PBBPP), were inventoried across the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions of Virginia. To attain productivity and cost estimates of utilizing small-diameter stems for woody biomass energy, a biomass harvesting case study was then conducted on a 15-year old loblolly pine stand. Results of the inventory and case study indicate that stands at the upper age limit for the PCT program may contain harvestable quantities of biomass (39.63 green tons/acre), although high harvesting costs ($23.46/green ton) relative to regional delivered biomass prices may limit the economic feasibility of utilizing PCT biomass for energy. / Master of Science

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A thinned array sensor system develops error voltages for steering dish antennas from signals arriving over a broad range of angles, thereby eliminating need for a priori knowledge of signal location.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Multiple same-frequency signals including direct/multipath signals are distinguished and individually tracked by measuring phase differences between sum and error channels of thinned array systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Two retrodirective antenna systems that autonomously point high gain beams to a signal source without requiring a priori knowledge of location are described. The first is a stationary phased array requiring no phase shifters or switches for its operation. The second is a steerable platform with a thinned receive array for signal acquisition and platform pointing and dish(es) to satisfy the high gain function.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Employment of the retro-directive technique described in Reference 1 describes a totally Autonomous Ground Station providing hemispheric coverage and continuous tracking. This System establishes communications between the satellite and ground station without human intervention or moving parts. When a satellite is in view, the ground station beacon antenna, using CDMA, enables the desired satellite transmitter and directs its beam to the ground station. The ground station, using the satellite’s transmitted signal, directs it’s receive and transmit arrays to point the ground station beams to the satellite, establishing two-way communications. The process is automatic and provides continuous horizon to horizon tracking.

<p>In this thesis, we develop methods for addressing the deficiencies of array processing with linear thinned arrays. Our methods are designed for array systems mounted on moving platforms and exploit synthetic aperture processing techniques. In particular, we use array motion to decrease the sidelobe levels and increase the degrees of freedom available from thinned array systems. In this work, we consider two application areas 1) passive SONAR and 2) ultrasound imaging. </p><p>Synthetic aperture processing is a methodology for exploiting array motion and has been successfully used in practice to increase array resolution. By spatially sampling along the path of the array virtual sensors can be realized and coherently fused to the existing array. The novel contribution of this work is our application of synthetic aperture processing. Here our goal is not to increase array resolution, instead we propose to use the synthetic aperture process to expand the spatial covariance and spatial frequency sensing capabilities of thinned array system.</p><p> </p><p>In the passive sensing case, we use a class of thinned arrays know as co-prime linear sensor arrays for source localization. The class of co-prime arrays provides roughly half the aperture worth of spatial covariances and with modest array motion can be extended to the full aperture of the array. The amount of motion required to produce a full set of spatial covariances is shown to be a function of the co-prime array parameters and is only a fraction of the total aperture of the array. The full set of spatial covariances can be used to form a spatial covariance matrix with dimension equal to that of a uniform array. With a spatial covariance matrix in hand one can perform signal processing tasks as if the array were fully populated. Three methods for spatial covariance matrix estimation are compared in different source localization scenarios. In the work presented here, we demonstrate the benefits of our approach for achieving reduced sidelobe levels and extending the source localization capabilities above the limits of the static co-prime array. </p><p>In the active sensing case, we develop a framework for incorporating motion using thinned arrays for ultrasound imaging. In this setting, array motion is used to augment the spatial frequency sensing capabilities of the thinned array system. Here we develop an augmentation strategy based on using quarter-wavelength array translations to fill-in missing spatial frequencies not measured by the static thinned array. The quarter-wavelength translation enables the thinned array system to sample missing spatial frequencies and increase the redundancy of other spatial frequencies sampled by the array. We compare the level of redundancy in sampling the spatial frequencies achieved by the thinned arrays post translation to different levels of sample redundancy derived from pruning the transmit/receive events of a uniform array. In this manner, we are able to examine how the level of spatial frequency redundancy afforded by different thinned arrays compare over the full redundancy range of the uniform array. While artificially pruning the uniform array does not necessarily create realizable arrays, it provides the means to compare image quality at different spatial frequency redundancy levels. In this work, we are able to conclude that images formed from thinned arrays using the translated synthetic aperture process are capable of approximating images formed from the corresponding uniform array. In particular, the systems considered in this work have approximately one-third of the active sensors when compared to the uniform array. </p><p>In both application areas, the use of thinned arrays offers a reduction in the cost to deploy and maintain a given array system. The feature that makes it possible to overcome the spatial sampling deficiencies of thinned array systems is motion and it is at the core of the performance gains in these applications.</p> / Dissertation

A 94.8 GHz interferometric imaging system utilizing aperture synthesis and tomography is developed for the Center for Advanced Sensor and Communication Antennas. Whereas typical interferometer designs employ multiple antennas to synthesize an aperture for image reconstruction, this unique interferometer will reproduce a scene's brightness temperature with only two antennas. To achieve this, the aperture synthesis is done with one antenna remaining stationary while the second antenna is moved at discrete increments along two controlled tracks. The two signals received by the antennas are cross-correlated to produce measured visibility function samples. The visibility samples reconstruct the scene brightness temperature through an inverse Fourier transform relationship.

The seasonal feeding behavior, forage preferences and body weight responses of goats were studied under three densities of woodland (called caatinga), and under three stocking rates. The experiment was located in the semi-arid tropics of northeastern Brazil at 3 42' South latitude, and 40 21' West longitude at an elevation of 75 meters. Mean annual precipitation of the area is 832 mm. Removing the shrubs and trees increased yields of herbaceous only on partially-cleared sites. Goats gained body weight (kg BW/ha) during the wet season, with the cleared treatment showing the best body weight response per unit of land. However during the dry season, animals lost weight probably due the low quality and quantity of available forage. The botanical composition of goats' diets showed them to be mixed feeders, consuming grasses, forbs and browse in various combinations depending on the season and the array of forage species available. During the dry season standing hay from herbaceous species and regrowth of some woody evergreen species were the principal forages. Animals maintained body weight on this forage. However, leaf litter was an important component of goats' diets during the dry season, but was inadequate for weight maintenance. Goats i n all treatments spent the least time grazing during the wet season and the most time during the beginning of the dry season. They spent the most time lying ruminating during the dry season and the least time during the wet season. Forage quality was probably a limiting factor to effective animal response during the dry season. Goats exhibited dislike for rain and wet conditions. They grazed freely when the temperatures were high (35 to 39 C). However, periods of high temperature corresponded to periods of low relative humidity, perhaps moderating the discomfort factor of combined high temperatures and high humidity.

We study the properties of thinning and Markov chain thinning of renewal processes. Among others, we investigate whether some special renewal processes can be obtained through Markov chain thinning.

Les travaux de cette thèse s’intéressent à un nouveau concept d’antenne reconfigurable offrant un bon compromis entre performances, complexité et coût. Ce concept, qualifié d’hybride, vise à combiner les avantages des réseaux d’antennes lacunaires et des antennes à éléments parasites. Cette hybridation est une alternative à la complexité des réseaux d’antennes conventionnels pour répondre aux exigences d’une architecture modulaire, générique et reconfigurable. L’intérêt majeur de ce concept est de proposer une architecture d’antenne permettant de réduire la complexité du circuit de formation des faisceaux (par la réduction du nombre d’éléments rayonnants à alimenter) tout en adressant les problématiques d’adaptation (TOS actif) des éléments excités. Ceci est permis grâce à la présence d’éléments parasites qui permettent de gérer la diffusion des couplages sur l’antenne. Cette thèse décrit le principe du concept hybride et propose une évaluation de ses potentialités. Par la suite, une définition des éléments à mettre en œuvre pour réaliser une preuve de concept est effectuée, en mettant l’accent sur l’importance de la caractérisation expérimentale. Les performances d’un prototype d’antenne hybride reconfigurable sont ensuite présentées afin de valider les développements et conclure sur cette solution innovante. / The work of this thesis aims to investigate a new concept of reconfigurable antenna allowing a good trade-off between performances, complexity and cost. This concept is called ‘hybrid’ because it is based on the capabilities of thinned arrays and parasitic element antennas. It is an alternative to classical antenna arrays and their complexity. The proposed concept has a modular architecture, and a good versatility for reconfigurable beams. The main advantage of this hybrid antenna is the simplicity of its beam formation network (BFN) which requires only a few number of excited elements. The antenna uses parasitic elements to manage the effects of couplings between the electromagnetic access. The problematic of active VSWR is also solved at the antenna level, avoiding the use of additional components in the BFN. This work details the principle of the reconfigurable hybrid antenna concept. The potentialities are evaluated. The elements required to realize a proof of concept are then defined, using a dedicated experimental setup. A prototype is manufactured and the performances have been checked to validate this innovative concept.