A small autonomous UAV for detection and action in precision agriculture

This thesis develops a framework for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with on-board computer for the purpose of detection and action in agriculture and other Remote Sensing tasks. This system has potential applications in the field of precision agriculture such as, invasive weed detection and eradication. The method is based on vision-based-detection and navigation that autonomously detects a target (e.g. weed) and takes action, such as spraying herbicide. The system was tested in simulation and in outdoors experiments at a farm in south-east Queensland, Australia. The results of this system have shown that the on-board system is capable of detecting targets of interest and taking autonomous actions accurately and efficiently which makes it’s a good addition to precision agriculture

Ocena występowania susz oraz ich wpływu na środowisko w zlewni rzeki Udhaim w Iraku

AbstractThis research addresses selected key issues related to the occurrence of droughts and their impacts on the environment in the mesoscale basin of the Udhaim River, the left tributary of the Tigris River, Iraq. It highlights the importance of water resources, which are dependent on the climate and human activity, as well as exposed to drought hazard. The Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index was applied to analyze drought development over the period 1980-2010. Trends in the SPEI time series in the years 1980-2010 were analyzed. Following this, the impacts of drought on land degradation, water discharge and water quality were investigated. The study results may help develop sustainable water management strategies important in mitigating water shortage.They can be used as a baseline for further research on improving water management in the region. The main contributions of this research include: (1) multi-year analysis of drought development of variable duration in the mesoscale basin; (2) extended understanding of drying trends explained by using the statistical tests; (3) broadened knowledge on the scale of land degradation, through remote sensing data sets and application of advanced GIS techniques; (4) improved understanding of water quality changes and their links with the magnitude of the revenue of water resources.StreszczenieNiniejsze badania dotyczą wybranych kluczowych zagadnień dotyczących występowania suszy i ich wpływu na środowisko w mezoskalowej zlewni rzeki Udhaim, lewym dopływie rzeki Tygrys, w Iraku. Praca dotyczy znaczenia zasobów wodnych, które są uzależnione od klimatu i działalności człowieka, a także są narażone na zagrożenie suszą. Zastosowano Standaryzowany Indeks Opadu i Ewapotranspiracji w celu analizy rozwoju suszy w okresie 1980-2010. Analizowano trendy w serii SPEI w latach 1980-2010. Następnie zbadano wpływ suszy na degradację środowiska, odpływ rzeczny i jakość wody. Wyniki badań mogą przyczynić się do opracowania trwałych strategii zarządzania zasobami wodnymi istotnych w łagodzeniu niedoboru wody. Mogą być wykorzystane jako podstawa do dalszych badań nad poprawą gospodarki wodnej w regionie. Główne osiągnięcia tych badań to: (1) wieloletnia analiza rozwoju suszu o zmiennym czasie trwania w zlewni mezoskalowej; (2) pogłębione zrozumienie trendów przesuszania środowiska wyjaśnione przy użyciu testów statystycznych; (3) poszerzona wiedza na temat skali degradacji lądu, uzyskana poprzez zastosowanie danych teledetekcyjnych i wykorzystanie zaawansowanych technik GIS; (4) lepsze zrozumienie zmian jakości wody i ich związku z wielkością odnawiania zasobów wodnych

The Impact of Political thought in the Romanian Political thought in the European Renaissance

This research raises the issue of the impact of political thought in the Romaian political thought in the European Renaissance would discuss the evolution of the State as of the beginning of the Romans in 754 BCM, which is the beginning of modern monarchy in particular and the Republican era through the imperial era and the end of the first  era, which was the last Alammeratori the end of the Roman Empire and the fall of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The researcher discussed the elements of political thought, end the Romanian, who made the five elements, namely the state and the invasion and the rnajority ( of the Ottoman Empire) as it was called Snbuga. And the constitution of mixed or as some call political thinkers principle of separation of powers and sovereignty, and finally law. These elements are the most prominent fleares and Roman political thought, which the researchers are trying to discem through the views of the Romanian political and Avkarruadalvkr Of course there are other elements, such as justice, equality and individual freedom can be classified within these five elements referred to and this study will examine the impact of political though in the European Renaissance Romanian political thought. Keywords: Imperial Age,   Renaissance, Royal ag

Teacher Professionalization and Teacher Commitment: A Multilevel Analysis

Teacher professionalization—the movement to upgrade the status, training, and working conditions of teachers—has received a great deal of interest in recent years. This report is concerned with the effects of teacher professionalization on elementary and secondary teachers in the United States. The analysis assesses the effects of teacher professionalization by examining the relationships between a selected set of characteristics, traditionally associated with professions and professionals, and one of the most important aspects of the quality and performance of teachers: their commitment to their teaching careers

Entropy and entanglement in a bipartite quasi-Hermitian system and its Hermitian counterparts

We consider a quantum oscillator coupled to a bath of $N$ other oscillators. The total system evolves with a quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Associated to it is a family of Hermitian systems, parameterized by a unitary map $W$. Our main goal is to find the influence of $W$ on the entropy and the entanglement in the Hermitian systems. We calculate explicitly the reduced density matrix of the single oscillator for all Hermitian systems and show that, regardless of $W$, their von Neumann entropy oscillates with a common period which is twice that of the non-Hermitian system. We show that generically, the oscillator and the bath are entangled for almost all times. While the amount of entanglement depends on the choice of $W$, it is independent of $W$ when averaged over a period. These results describe some universality in the physical properties of all Hermitian systems associated to a given non-Hermitian one

Reservoir dynamics induced by coupling to a quantum system

We consider the dynamics of fixed size subsystems of an open quantum system, in which N particles interact via a common quantum noise (reservoir). We show that correlations among the particles and between the particles and the reservoir, which are brought about through the interaction for finite N, vanish completely in the high complexity limit N → ∞. We investigate the effect of the particle system on the reservoir, which itself is a large quantum system. For each fixed time, we find the explicit construction of a Hilbert space representation of the asymptotic (N → ∞) reservoir state and analyze the relation between those representations at different times

Synthesis and electrochemistry of novel conducting dendrimeric star copolymers on poly(propylene imine) dendrimer

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDOne of the most powerful aspects of conducting polymers is their ability to be nanostructured through innovative, synthetically manipulated, transformations, such as to tailor-make the polymers for specialized applications. In the exponentially increasing wide field of nanotechnology, some special attention is being paid to innovative hybrid dendrimer-core based polymeric smart materials. Star copolymers are a class of branched macromolecules having a central core with multiple linear polymer chains extending from the core. This intrinsic structural feature yields a unique 3D structure with extended conjugated linear polymer chains, resulting in star copolymers, which have higher ionic conductivities than their corresponding non-star conducting polymer counterparts. In this study an in-depth investigation was carried out into the preparation and characterization of specialized electronic smart materials. In particular, the preparation and characterization of novel conducting dendrimeric star copolymers which have a central poly(propylene imine) (PPI) dendrimer core with conducting polypyrrole (PPy) chains extending from the core was carried out. This involved, first, the preparation of a series of dendrimeric polypyrrole poly(propylene imine) star copolymers (PPI-co-PPy), using generations 1 to 4 (G1 to G4) PPI dendrimer precursors. The experimental approach involved the use of both chemical and electrochemical synthesis methods. The basic procedure involved a condensation reaction between the primary amine of a diamino functional PPI dendrimer surface and 2-pyrrole aldehyde, to afford the pyrrole functionalized PPI dendrimer (PPI-2Py). Polymerization of the intrinsically contained monomeric Py units situated within the dendrimer backbone was achieved via two distinctly different routes: the first involved chemical polymerization and the second was based on potentiodynamic oxidative electrochemical polymerization. The star copolymers were then characterized using various sophisticated analytical techniques, in-situ and ex-situ. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HNMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to determine the structures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to determine the morphology. Themogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal stability of the prepared materials. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was used to study the structural make-up of phases, crystallinity and amorphous content. Hall effect measurements were carried out to determine the electrical conductivity of the chemically prepared star copolymers. The PPI-co-PPy exhibited improved thermal stability compared to PPI-2Py, as confirmed by TGA. SEM results showed that the surface morphology of the functionalized dendrimer and star copolymer differed. The surface morphology of the chemically prepared star copolymers resembled that of a flaky, waxy material, compared to the ordered morphology of the electrochemically grown star copolymers, which resembled that of whelk-like helixes. In the case the electrochemically grown star copolymers, SEM images recorded at higher magnifications showed that the whelk-like helixes of the star copolymers were hollow tubes with openings at their tapered ends, and had an average base diameter of 2.0 mu;m. X-ray diffraction analysis of the first generation star copolymer G1PPI-co-PPy revealed a broadly amorphous structure associated with PPy, and crystalline peaks for PPI. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), square wave voltammetry (SWV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques were used to study and model the electrochemical reactivity of the star copolymer materials. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data showed that the G1PPI-co-PPy exhibited slightly higher ionic conductivity than pristine PPy in lithium perchlorate. The second generation star copolymer G2PPI-co-PPy electrochemically deposited on a platinum (Pt) electrode had a lower electrochemical charge transfer resistance compared to electrodeposited polypyrrole (PPy) on a Pt electrode, and bare Pt. The decrease in charge transfer resistance was attributed to an increase in the conjugation length of the polymer as a result of the linking of the highly conjugated PPy to the PPI dendrimer. Bode impedimetric analysis indicated that G2PPI-co-PPI was a semiconductor, with a maximum phase angle shift of 45.3° at 100 MHz. The star copolymer exhibited a 2- electron electrochemistry and a surface coverage of 99%. Results of Hall effect measurements showed that the star copolymer is a semiconducting material, having a conductivity of 0.7 S cm-1, in comparison to the 1.5 S cm-1 of PPy. To the best of my knowledge, these new star copolymers have not been reported in the open literature. Their properties make them potentially applicable for use in biosensors.South Afric

Quality Assessment of Afrotan Tannery Drinking Water Wells

Afrotan tannery was established in 1983, in Albageer Industrial Area- Algazeera State - Sudan. It tans about 20000 skins per day. It uses different harmful amounts of chemicals in tanning processes and it discharges these harmful effluents in land near three drinking water wells. The objective of this study is to assess the quality of these wells and to investigate the contamination of the tannery effluents in the drinking water. Three liters of the tannery tap water was collected from a water reservoir which is fed by the above three wells. 24 parameters of Sudanese Standard Specifications for drinking waters and all the tannery effluents which are expected to contaminate the drinking water wells were measured. The results showed that there is no contamination of tannery effluents to the tannery drinking water wells, and all measured parameters were within the permissible levels of Sudanese Standard Specifications for drinking water. The study recommended periodic conduction of such studies in the future and to take the samples directly from each well to investigate any contaminatio

Biogenic volatile compounds of activated sludge and their application for metal bioremediation

Heavy metals pollution is nowadays one of the most important environmental concerns. This paper illustrates the employment of the biogenic volatile compounds generated during the aerobic growth of activated sludge on raw domestic wastewater for heavy metals removal. Most of the tested metals even as individual or mixed metal species (Co, Cu, Cd, Fe, Hg, Ni, Mn, Pb and Zn) were potentially transformed into insoluble precipitates and then separated out of their solutions. The Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis has identified some organosulfur groups (thiol, disulfide and thiocarbonyl), in addition to amine group in the metal precipitates. This study highlighted the application of the microbial volatile metabolites for heavy metals bioremediation in a powerful, cost effective and eco-friendly bioprocess.Key words: Application, activated sludge, biogas, metals, bio-precipitatio