Changepoint analysis is a useful tool in environmental statistics in that it provides a methodology for threshold detection and modeling processes subject to periodic changes in the underlying model due to anthropogenic effects or natural phenomena. Several applications of changepoint analysis are investigated here. The use of inappropriate changepoint detection methods is first discussed and the need for a simple, flexible, correct method is established and such a method is proposed for the mean-shift model. Data from the Everglades, Florida, USA is used to showcase the methodology in a real-world setting. An extension to the case of time-series data represented via transition matrices is presented as a result of joint work with Matt Williams (Department of Statistics, Virginia Tech) and rainfall data from Kenya, Africa is presented as a case-study. Finally the multivariate changepoint problem is addressed by a two-stage approach beginning with dimension reduction via principal component analysis (PCA). After the dimension reduction step the location of the changepoint in principal component space is estimated and assuming at most one change in a mean-shift setting, all possible sub-models are investigated. / Ph. D.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-17T14:53:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauro Sergio Silva Pinto.pdf: 649420 bytes, checksum: 2659c3409645c14d4672fc5713698782 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-27 / The time of flight method for determining the wind speed using ultrasonic transducers is presented in this work. The techniques of phase difference and threshold detection for determining the time of flight are presented. A more detailed study of the phase difference technique is carried out in order to determine the design specifications using this method with respect to the noise sensitivity, dependence of the measurement range with the medium temperature and measurement resolution. A design specification example is presented in order to illustrate the proposed procedures. / Apresenta-se neste trabalho o método do tempo de trânsito para determinação da velocidade do vento utilizando transdutores ultra-sônicos. Apresentam-se as técnicas da diferença de fase e detecção de limiar para determinação do tempo de trânsito deste método. Um estudo mais aprofundado é realizado para o método da diferença de fase de forma a determinar as especificações de projeto usando esse método, com relação à sensibilidade ao ruído, dependência da faixa de medição com temperatura do meio e resolução de medição. Um exemplo de especificação de projeto é apresentado de forma a ilustrar os procedimentos desenvolvidos.

L’intéraction entre la biologie et l’électronique est une discpline en pleine essort. De nom-breux systèmes électroniques tentent de s’interconnecter avec des tissus ou des cellules vivantesafin de décoder l’information biologique. Le Potentiel d’action (PA) est au coeur de codagebiologique et par conséquent il est nécéssaire de pouvoir les repérer sur tout type de signal bio-logique. Par conséquent, nous étudions dans ce manuscrit la possibilité de concevoir un circuitélectronique couplé à un système de microélectrodes capable d’effectuer une acquisition, unedétection des PAs et un enregistrement des signaux biologiques. Que ce soit en milieu bruitéou non, nous considérons le taux de détection de PA et la contrainte de temps réel commedes notions primordiales et la consommation en silicium comme un prix à payer. Initialementdéveloppés pour l’étude de signaux neuronaux et pancréatiques, ces systèmes conviennent par-faitement pour d’autres type de cellules. / Interaction between biology and electronic is in expansion. Many electronic systems aretrying to interconnect with tissues or living cells to decode biological information. The ActionPotential (AP) is the heart of biological coding and therefore it is necessary to be able to locateit from any type of biological signal. Therefore, we study in this manuscript the possibility ofdesigning an electronic circuit coupled to microelectrodes capable of acquisition, detection ofPAs and recording of biological signals. Whether or not in a noisy environment, we consider thedetection rate of PA and the real time-computing constraint as an hard specificationand andsilicon area as a price to pay. Initially developed for the study of neural signals and pancreatic,these systems are ideal for other types of cells.