We are developing a stable and precise spectrograph for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) named "iLocater." The instrument comprises three principal components: a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph that operates in the YJ-bands (0.97-1.30 mu m), a fiber-injection acquisition camera system, and a wavelength calibration unit. iLocater will deliver high spectral resolution (R similar to 150,000-240,000) measurements that permit novel studies of stellar and substellar objects in the solar neighborhood including extrasolar planets. Unlike previous planet-finding instruments, which are seeing-limited, iLocater operates at the diffraction limit and uses single mode fibers to eliminate the effects of modal noise entirely. By receiving starlight from two 8.4m diameter telescopes that each use "extreme" adaptive optics (AO), iLocater shows promise to overcome the limitations that prevent existing instruments from generating sub-meter-per-second radial velocity (RV) precision. Although optimized for the characterization of low-mass planets using the Doppler technique, iLocater will also advance areas of research that involve crowded fields, line-blanketing, and weak absorption lines.

The uppermost crustal velocity structure of the Goldstream Valley, central Alaska is investigated using a series of five explosions that were detonated in schist bedrock and recorded at >120 local stations to develop 1-D and 3-D models of the upper crust. Simple refraction analyses reveal that both P- and S-wave arrival times are azimuth dependent, with the fastest velocities in the southeast and northeast directions. The Swave velocity structure of the upper crust is also determined through multiple filter analysis and a damped, least squares inversion of 0.2-2 sec period Rg waves. The shear wave velocity model from the surface-wave analysis is combined with the refraction analysis results to develop 1-D P- and S-wave models to a depth of 2 km. In order to better constrain P- and S-wave velocity variations both laterally and with depth throughout the Goldstream Valley, 3-D velocity models are produced using a numerical simulation model. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Geology and Geophysics.

Implementation of the National Water Act in South Africa requires that an ecological Reserve be determined for all significant resources. The ecological Reserve determination is the estimation of the amount of water required to maintain the system in a particular ecological condition. Because aquatic habitats are defined in terms of local hydraulic variables rather than amounts of water, hydraulic analysis provides a crucial link in relating hydrological conditions and river ecosystem integrity. Over the last decade, considerable effort has been devoted to developing hydraulics for the Reserve determination. The hydraulics needs for Reserve determination are primarily for low flow analysis, and appropriate methods still need to be developed. This thesis deals with hydraulics under low flow conditions. Its emphasis is on developing appropriate methods for describing the hydraulic characteristics of South African rivers under conditions of low discharge, and the influence of vegetation and large bed roughness. The following methods have been developed: · A new equation for prediction of overall flow resistance under large-scale roughness, and a new approach for estimation of intermediate-scale roughness resistance that distinguishes the influences of large and intermediate scale roughness components. · Prediction methods for velocity distributions with large roughness elements. Under low flows, rocks and boulders may control the local velocity and depth distributions. Distributions of velocities and depth are related to rapidly spatially varied flow caused by the boundary geometry rather than flow resistance phenomena. With increasing discharge, the multiple local controls become submerged and the flow tends towards a resistance controlled condition. Available information addressing the distinction between resistance controlled and multiple local controls conditions is limited. This thesis contributes to understanding the transformation between multiple local controls and the resistance controlled conditions. · Practical conveyance prediction methods for three situations pertaining to the occurrence of vegetation in rivers and wetlands. In-channel and riparian vegetation makes an important contribution to the creation of physical habitats for aquatic animals, but also has significant effects on flow resistances that need to be predicted.

Este trabalho debate o direito ao esquecimento em uma sociedade amplamente mediada por tecnologias digitais. Entre os principais quesitos, será possível verificar que a aceleração das comunicações está baseada no imperativo de velocidade que se fortaleceu ainda mais com a cibernética, sendo a viga-mestra da cibercultura. Tal aceleração conduzirá o estudo para a avaliação dos discursos identitários, bem como sobre a privacidade, sua invasão e evasão, além do assédio violento e sutil da velocidade para que os indivíduos explicitem seus gostos e características que serão usados como artefatos de memória digital, construindo bancos de dados interconectados que conforto e praticidade, mas por outro lado também podem ser convertidos em tecnologias de vigilância e controle. Neste sentido, a inversão do custo das memórias e do custo do esquecimento pautará o debate que pretende explicitar algumas barreiras contemporâneas para que o esquecimento continue a desempenhar seu papel social, além da dificuldade de compreender o poder dos filtros algorítmicos quando se está submerso na cibercultura pantópica. / This paper discusses the right to be forgotten in a society largely mediated by digital technologies. Among the main questions, it will become possible to verify that the acceleration of communications is based on the imperative of velocity that was strengthened even more with cybernetics, and the frame-work of cyberculture. Such acceleration will lead the study for the evaluation of identity discourses as well as on privacy, its invasion and evasion , in addition to violent and subtle harassment from velocity to individuals to release their wills and characteristics that will be used as digital memory artifacts, building interconnected databases to provide comfort and practicality, but which can also be converted into surveillance and control technologies. In this sense, the cost inversion of remembering and oblivion will guide this debate that aims to clarify some contemporary barriers to oblivion continues to play its social role, besides the difficulty of understanding the power of algorithmic filters when one is submerged in the pantopic cyberculture.

O hóquei sobre patins é uma modalidade desportiva muita praticada em alguns países e totalmente desconhecida em outros. A velocidade da patinação é considerada, entre os aspectos técnicos do hóquei sobre patins, um dos mais importantes, devido a natureza veloz de uma partida deste jogo. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar qual a técnica adotada para o aumento da velocidade de patinação pelos atletas de hóquei sobre patins mediante análise cinemática. A amostra foi composta por 8 atletas de hóquei sobre patins da equipe do Sertãozinho Hóquei Clube de cada categoria: mirim, infanto-juvenil, e adulto em um total de 24 atletas. O estudo utilizou como procedimento de análise a cinemetria associada a um medidor de velocidade e aceleração de atleta posicionado em um percurso total de 6 metros. Foi solicitado aos atletas que realizassem uma passagem com velocidade (V1) próxima a 2,77m/s (10Km/h), outra com velocidade (V2) próxima a 4,16m/s (15km/h) e outra com a maior velocidade possível (V3). Os resultados obtidos permitem concluir que as técnicas adotadas para o aumento da velocidade de patinação pelos atletas de hóquei sobre patins foram o aumento da freqüência das passadas, o comprimento menor da passada 1 em relação a passada 2 e a passada 3, os comprimentos semelhantes entre a passada 2 e a passada 3 e um ângulo absoluto do tronco menor / Hockey on skates is a sport very well practiced in some countries and totally unknown in others. Due to the considered fast essence of hockey, skating velocity is regarded as one of the most important technical aspects of this game. The aim of this study was to evaluate, by means of kinematics analysis, which technique was employed by hockey athletes to increase the skating velocity. 24 hockey athletes of the Sertãozinho Hoquei Clube team, 8 from each category - preteen, teenager, and adult - composed the sample. The study used as analysis procedure the videography associated to a measurer of speed set in a total course of 6 meters. The athletes were asked to skate in 3 different velocities: 10Km/h (±2,77 m/s), 15km/h (±4,16 m/s) and as quickly as possible. The results showed that the techniques employed by the athletes to increase the skating velocity were: increase of step frequency, a smaller length of step 1 in relation to step 2 and 3, the same length for step 2 and 3 and a smaller absolute angle of trunk

Injuries involving the nervous system are among the most devastating and life altering of all neurological disorders. The resulting loss of sensation and voluntary muscle control represent a drastic change in the individuals lifestyle and independence. Spinal cord injury affects over two hundred thousand people within the United States alone. While there have been many attempts to develop neural interfaces that can be used as part of a prosthetic device to improve the quality of life of such patients and contribute to the reduction of ongoing health care costs, the design of such a device has proved elusive. Direct access to the spinal cord requires potentially life threatening surgery during which the dura, the protective covering surrounding the cord, must be opened with a resulting high risk of infection. For this reason research has been focussed on the stimulation of and recording from the peripheral nerves in an attempt to restore the functionality that has been lost through spinal cord injury. This thesis is concerned with the current status and limitations of peripheral nerve interfaces that are designed for recording electrical signals directly from the nervous system using a technique called velocity selective recording. This technique exploits the relationship between axonal diameter, which is linked via anatomy to function, and the speed with which the axon conducts excitation. New techniques are developed that improve current methods for identifying and simulating neural signals and power efficient implementations of these methods are presented in modern microelectronic platforms. Results are presented from pioneering experiments in rat and pig that for the first time demonstrate the recording and analysis of the physiological electroneurogram using velocity based methods. New methods are developed that enable the extraction of neuronal firing rates and thus the extraction of the information encoded within the nervous system.

The purpose of this work is to develop a continuum theory that may be used to predict the effects of anisotropic boundary vibrations on loose granular assemblies. In order to do so, we extend statistical averaging techniques employed in the kinetic theory to derive an anisotropic flow theory for rapid, dense flows of identical, inelastic spheres. The theory is anisotropic in the sense that it treats the full second moment of velocity fluctuations, rather than only its isotropic piece, as a mean field to be determined. In this manner, the theory can, for example, predict granular temperatures that are different in different directions. The flow theory consists of balance equations for mass, momentum, and full second moment of velocity fluctuations, as well as constitutive relations for the pressure tensor, the flux of second moment, and the source of second moment. The averaging procedure employed in deriving the constitutive relations is based on a Maxwellian that is perturbed due to the presence of a deviatoric second and full third moment of velocity fluctuations. Because the theory is anisotropic, it can predict the normal stress differences observed in granular shear flows, as well as the evolution to isotropy in an assembly with granular temperatures that are initially highly anisotropic. In order to complement the theory, we employ similar statistical techniques to derive boundary conditions that ensure that the flux of momentum as well as the flux of second moment are balanced at the vibrating boundary. The bumps are hemispheres arranged in regular arrays, and the fluctuating boundary motion is described by an anisotropic Maxwellian distribution function. The bumpiness of the surface may be adjusted by changing the size of the hemispheres, the spacing between the hemispheres in two separate array-directions, and the angle between the two directions. Statistical averaging consistent with the constitutive theory yields the rates at which momentum and full second moment are transferred to the flow. In order to present results in a form that is easy to interpret physically, the statistical parameters that describe the boundary fluctuations are related in a plausible manner to amplitudes and frequencies of sinusoidal vibrations that may differ in three mutually perpendicular directions, and to phase angles that may be adjusted between the three directions of vibration. The focus of the results presented here is on the steady response of unconfined granular assemblies that are thermalized and driven by horizontal bumpy vibrating boundaries. In a first detailed study of the effects of the boundary geometry and boundary motion on the overall response of the assemblies, the anisotropic theory is reduced to a more familiar isotropic form. The resulting theory predicts the manner in which the profiles of isotropic granular temperature and solid volume fraction as well as the uniform velocity and corresponding flow rate vary with spacings between the bumps, angle of the bump-array, energy of vibration, direction of vibration, and phase angles of the vibration. In a second study, we solve the corresponding, but more elaborate, boundary value problem for anisotropic flows induced by anisotropic boundary vibrations. The main focus in presenting these results is on the differences between granular temperatures in three perpendicular directions normal and tangential to the vibrating surface, and how each is affected by the bumpiness of the boundary and the direction of the vibration. In each case, we calculate the corresponding nonuniform velocity profile, solid volume fraction profile, and mass flow rate.

This study analyses the applicability of cross correlating the signal between two thermocouples to obtain simultaneous measurement of velocity, integral turbulent length scales, and temperature in fire induced turbulent flows. This sensor is based on the classical Taylor's hypothesis which states that turbulent structures should retain their shape and identity over a small period of time. If sampling rate is fast enough such that the signal from two thermocouples is sampled within this time duration, the turbulent eddy can be used as a tracer to measure flow velocity and fluctuation. Experiments performed in two laboratory scale devices: a heated turbulent jet and a variable diameter natural gas burner show that sampling rate, sampling time, and angular orientation with respect to the bulk flow are the most sensitive parameters in velocity measurements. Flows with Reynolds numbers between 300 (u=0.1m/s) and 6000 (u=2.0 m/s) were tested.

Cheung Ho Sang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-187). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Curriculum Vitae --- p.ii / Acknowledgments --- p.iii / Abstract --- p.v / Table of Contents --- p.viii / Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2. --- The behavior of income velocity of money --- p.3 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.3 / Chapter 2.2 --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 2.3 --- Data Description --- p.9 / Chapter 2.4 --- Methodology --- p.9 / Chapter 2.5 --- Empirical Result --- p.16 / Chapter 2.6 --- Conclusion --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 3. --- The behavior of equity premium --- p.106 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.106 / Chapter 3.1 --- Literature Review --- p.106 / Chapter 3.2 --- Data Description --- p.112 / Chapter 3.3 --- Methodology --- p.112 / Chapter 3.4 --- Empirical Result --- p.120 / Chapter 3.5 --- Conclusion --- p.130 / Data Appendices --- p.182 / Bibliography --- p.185

Qin, Jie. / "November 2010." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 162-173). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.