Preponderant visual interface use for conveying information from machine to human admits failures due to overwhelming the visual channel. This thesis investigates the suitability of auditory feedback and certain related design choices in settings involving background speech. Communicating a tele-operated vehicle’s tilt angle was the focal application. A simulator experiment with pitch feedback on one system variable, tilt angle, and its safety threshold was conducted. Manipulated in a within-subject design were: (1) presence vs. absence of speech, (2) discrete tilt alarm vs. discrete alarm and tilt sonification (continuous feedback), (3) tilt sonification vs. tilt and threshold sonification, and (4) linear vs. quadratic transfer function of variable to pitch. Designs with both variable and reference sonification were found to significantly reduce the time drivers spent exceeding the safety limit compared to the designs with no sonification, though this effect was not detected within the set of conditions with background speech audio.

This thesis describes computational and theoretical studies of fundamental physical processes that influence the heat-release response of turbulent premixed flames to acoustic forcing. Attached turbulent flames, as found in many practical devices, have a non-zero mean velocity component tangential to the turbulent flame brush. Hence, flame surface wrinkles generated at a given location travel along the flame sheet while being continuously modified by local flow velocity disturbances, thereby, causing the flame sheet to respond in a non-local manner to upstream turbulence fluctuations. The correlation length and time scales of these flame sheet motions are significantly different from those of the upstream turbulence fluctuations. These correlation lengths and times increase with turbulence intensity, due to the influence of kinematic restoration. This non-local nature of flame sheet wrinkling (called 'non-locality') results in a spatially varying distribution of local consumption speed (i.e. local mass burning rate) even when the upstream flow statistics are isotropic and stationary. Non-locality and kinematic restoration result in coupling between the responses of the flame surface to coherent acoustic forcing and random turbulent fluctuations respectively, thereby, causing the coherent ensemble averaged component of the global heat-release fluctuation to be different in magnitude and phase from its nominal (laminar) value even in the limit of small coherent forcing amplitudes (i.e. linear forcing limit). An expression for this correction, derived from an asymptotic analysis to leading order in turbulence intensity, shows that its magnitude decreases with increasing forcing frequency because kinematic restoration limits flame surface wrinkling amplitudes. Predictions of ensemble averaged heat release response from a different, generalized modeling approach using local consumption and displacement speed distributions from unforced analysis shows good agreement with the exact asymptotic result at low frequencies.

Volume rendering (VRT) has been used with great success in studies of patients using computed tomography (CT), much because of the possibility of standardizing the rendering protocols. When using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this procedure is considerably more difficult, since the signal from a given tissue can vary dramatically, even for the same patient. This thesis work focuses on how to improve the presentation of MRI data by using VRT protocols including standardized transfer functions. The study is limited to exclusively examining data from patients with suspected renal artery stenosis. A total number of 11 patients are examined. A statistical approach is used to standardize the volume rendering protocols. The histogram of the image volume is modeled as the sum of two gamma distributions, corresponding to vessel and background voxels. Parameters describing the gamma distributions are estimated with a Maximum-likelihood technique, so that expectation (E1 and E2) and standard deviation of the two voxel distributions can be calculated from the histogram. These values are used to generate the transfer function. Different combinations of the values from the expectation and standard deviation were studied in a material of 11 MR angiography datasets, and the visual result was graded by a radiologist. By comparing the grades, it turned out that using only the expectation of the background distribution (E1) and vessel distribution (E2) gave the best result. The opacity is then defined with a value of 0 up to a signal threshold of E1, then increasing linearly up to 50 % at a second threshold E2, and after that a constant opacity of 50 %. The brightness curve follows the opacity curve to E2, after which it continues to increase linearly up to 100%. A graphical user interface was created to facilitate the user-control of the volumes and transfer functions. The result from the statistical calculations is displayed in the interface and is used to view and manipulate the transfer function directly in the volume histogram. A transfer function generated with the Maximum-likelihood VRT method (ML-VRT) gave a better visual result in 10 of the 11 cases than when using a transfer function not adapting to signal intensity variations.

O presente trabalho de pesquisa trata da investigação de parâmetros de qualidade aplicados a sistemas de imagem em radiologia odontológica. Para isso, foram levantados parâmetros propostos pela Portaria nº 453 de 1998 da Secretaria de Vigilância Sanitária do Ministério da Saúde em aparelhos de raios X odontológicos e determinadas funções de transferência de modulação (FTM), como método para a avaliação da resolução espacial de sistemas de radiologia odontológica digital. Com base nesses dados, comparou-se três sistemas digitais diretos (DIGORA, DENOPTIX e CygnusRay) e um sistema digital indireto, baseado no scanner Umax PowerLook 1120. Essa comparação evidenciou, para esse caso, a melhor qualidade, em termos de resolução espacial, do sistema indireto estudado e a relativa equivalência dos sistemas digitais entre si, quando comparados em suas resoluções máximas (em número de pontos por polegada). Também foi possível validar o uso do método de simulação computacional para a obtenção da FTM de sistemas radiográficos odontológicos / This work has investigated quality parameters applied to odontologic radiographic image systems. In order to achieve this purpose, parameters related to the Portaria nº 453 of 1998 of Secretaria de Vigilância Sanitária do Ministério da Saúde have been checked and modulation transfer functions (MTF) have been determined. These information has been used to compare three differents direct radiographic images systems (DIGORA, DENOPTIX e CygnusRay) and one indirect, based on scanner Umax PowerLook 1120. The obtained data has showed, in this case, the better performance, in terms of spatial resolution, of the indirect system and the relative equivalency of the direct systems, when configured with the maximum resolution (in term of dpi). The work has validated the computer simulation process in order to generate the MTF of odontologic radiographic image systems

Este trabalho tem por objetivo o desenvolvimento de uma nova técnica de pré-processamento de imagens mamográficas digitais para melhorar o desempenho dos esquemas computacionais de auxílio ao diagnóstico (CAD) e para auxiliar na detecção precoce do câncer de mama. O método proposto efetua uma restauração nas imagens mamográficas utilizando, em uma primeira etapa, a transformada de Anscombe e o filtro de Wiener para redução do ruído quântico. Posteriormente, é utilizado o filtro inverso da função de transferência de modulação (MTF) do sistema de imagem para realce das estruturas de interesse na mamografia, como as microcalcificações, que podem ser um indicativo de câncer de mama em seu estágio inicial. Imagens mamográficas restauradas pelo método proposto foram utilizadas na avaliação de um esquema CAD para detecção automática de microcalcificações. Os resultados mostraram que o desempenho do esquema CAD apresentou uma melhora significativa quando imagens restauradas foram utilizadas, mesmo para imagens de mamas densas, que resultam normalmente em baixa taxa de detecção devido ao baixo contraste. / This work aims to developing a new technique for pre-processing digital mammographic images in order to improve the performance of computer aided-diagnosis schemes (CAD) and to assist in early detection of breast cancer. The proposed method performs a restoration in mammographic images using in a first step, the Anscombe transform and Wiener filtering to reduce image quantum noise. Subsequently, it was used the inverse modulation transfer function filtering (MTF) considering the imaging system to enhance structures of interest in mammography, such as microcalcifications, which may be an indicative of breast cancer in its early stage. Mammographic images restored by the proposed method were used in the evaluation of a CAD scheme for automatic detection of microcalcifications. The results showed that the performance of the CAD scheme had a significant improvement when restored images were used, even for images of dense breasts, which often results in low detection rate due to low contrast.

La zone intertropicale est une zone clé du climat mondial, dans la mesure où ce secteur joue un rôle essentiel dans le cycle du carbone à l’échelle globale, via la pompe du carbone par la productivité primaire, elle-même accrue dans les grandes cellules d'upwelling côtières. L’objectif principal de ce travail était de discuter la variabilité climatique haute fréquence ayant affecté l'Océan Atlantique Est tropical au cours des derniers 45 000 ans à l’échelle orbitale et sub-orbitale. Notre étude a ainsi mis en évidence les connexions liant le domaine océanique et le domaine continental (panaches fluviatiles) à travers la comparaison entre les conditions hydrologiques de surface reconstruites par les assemblages phytoplanctoniques microfossiles (kystes de dinoflagellés : principaux outils de cette étude) et la variabilité de la mousson africaine déduite de données géochimiques sédimentaires disponibles sur les 3 carottes d’étude, situées au large du Congo ainsi que dans le Golfe de Guinée. Ce travail de thèse a également permis de réaliser un travail approfondi de mise à jour de la base de données dinokystes modernes et des données environnementales qui leurs sont associées (température et salinité de surface, productivité primaire, mais aussi nouveaux ajouts : densité de l’eau, saisonnalité, ou encore anomalies de températures par rapport à la moyenne des températures calculée selon un axe latitudinal), afin de pouvoir quantifier les paramètres hydrologiques sur les carottes d’étude via la fonction de transfert dinokyste développée pour l’Océan Atlantique tropical. Les assemblages dinokystes ont révélé une grande sensibilité aux effets de la précession, avec des environnements chauds et soumis à de fortes décharges fluviatiles observés en contexte de minima de l'indice de précession, en particulier durant la dernière déglaciation, configuration amplifiée par le maximum d’obliquité. Les résultats issus de la fonction de transfert démontrent le rôle primordial du fleuve Congo dans l'évolution de la productivité primaire au cours du temps, via l'apport massif de nutriments, ainsi que via des mécanismes d'upwelling générés par l'activité du fleuve en elle-même. / The intertropical area is a key domain for the knowledge of past global climate, with indeed a prevalent role regarding of carbon cycle; high productive conditions in this area being induced by the large eastern boundary upwelling cells. The main purpose of this work consisted in discussing the high frequency climate variability that occurred in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean over the last 45,000 years. This area then permitted to highlight land-sea linkages through the relationships existing between marine environments as deduced from microfossil assemblages (dinoflagellate cysts: main proxies of this study) and the African monsoon as reconstructed through river-plume activity, thanks to three cores located off the Congo river mouth and in Gulf of Guinea. Furthermore, this work permitted to deeply update the tropical dinocyst modern database used by the dinocyst-based transfer function method developed for the Tropical Atlantic Ocean (new modern sites and new environmental datasets : SST, SSS, net primary productivity, upwelling activity, seasonality). Dinocyst assemblages revealed a strong influence of precession effects, with warmer and wetter periods reconstructed during minima of precession, especially during the last deglaciation, strongly enhanced by the obliquity maximum. Dinocyst-based transfer function results also highlighted the prevalent role of the Congo River on past primary productivity evolution through strengthened terrigenous inputs to the ocean but also through river-induced upwelling mechanism.

The thesis deals with the design of the measurement installation, which is intended for the microplasma noise measurements. This noise is being generated in the defective parts of the PN junction. The goal of this work is to design the measurement installation and to realize the fully functional workbench for the analogical noise related measurements and to determine the transfer function of the measurement installation. Main part of the work is to choose proper parameters for the measuring devices and to design the software intended for the automated measurements. Consequently, we have to process the measured waveforms of the microplasma noise, to determine the dependency of the noise on the signal magnitude and to calculate the power spectral noise density. Finally, we have to determine the transfer function of the measurement installation and to design the inversion filter.

The thesis is paid to design frequency filters steerable jet active elements of the MO–CF (Multiple-Output Current Follower) and also newly-developed current active element DACA (Digitally Adjustable Current Amplifier) in the company ON Semiconductor. The first three chapters focus on basic properties of frequency filters, used components and circuit design methods. The digitally controllable current amplifier DACA is used for managing the radio frequency filters and adjust it using the current amplification parameter A through the digital input CTR. For the design of filters of the second order a method of M-C Signal flow graphs is used. This method is in the work proved very useful and contributed to the modification of already designed frequency filters. The fourth chapter describes the actual detailed design of circuits with quality management, or marginal frequencies to the two parameters. Involvement of the proposed filter is simulated in the OrCAD program for different levels of models of the circuit elements. At the end of each filter design there is a comparison of theoretical and simulated values of the adjustable parameters circuit. The conclusion was one of the districts selected for experimental verification, followed by comparing the measured and simulated transmission characteristics.

This thesis deals with the analysis of coaxial cavity filters and synthesis of generic topology of these filters. Transfer function comes out the synthesis, which is based on low-pass prototype and similarity with real structure. The next aim of this thesis is to build the basic software for coaxial cavity filters synthesis from engaged characteristic parameters of the filter. This work also includes the analysis of coupling matrix synthesis based on transfer function, where we can use direct coupling or cross-coupling between resonators. The last point is focused on the diplexer filter based on specified parameters and obtained coupling matrix. Entire diplexer model is optimized using Tuning-Space Mapping method.

The diploma thesis deals with theory of imaging in a transmitted-light digital holographic microscope using partially coherent illumination. The influence of spatial and temporal coherence state on optical sectioning property is solved. The coherent transfer function is calculated. From this function imaging characteristics for a two-dimensional scattering object are derived depending on its defocus. Two different designs of microscopes developed in the Laboratory of optical microscopy in IPE FME BUT are considered.