Combining new technologies to monitor phenology from leaves to ecosystems

• Grant number: 13/50155-0
• Support type: Research Program on Global Climate Change - University-Industry Cooperative Research (PITE)
• Duration: February 01, 2014 - July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Cooperation agreement: Microsoft Research
• Principal Investigator: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Grantee: Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Company: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Instituto de Biociências (IB)
• City: Rio Claro
• Co-Principal Investigators: Ricardo da Silva Torres ; Thiago Sanna Freire Silva
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/00597-8 - Seasonal patterns of leaf exchange in different functional groups species using cameras (phenological cameras), BP.IC; 15/17534-3 - Abiotic and biotic drivers of species diversity across an elevation gradient: an optical trait-based approach for testing ecological theories, BP.DR; 14/13354-8 - Phenology at the landscape scale: image collection and processing using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), BP.TT; 14/07700-0 - Combining new technologies to monitor phenology from leaves to ecosystems, BP.MS

Abstract

The e-phenology is a multidisciplinary project that explores innovative solutions for plant monitoring in the tropics, combining research in Computer Science, Phenology, and Ecology. On-the-ground phenological observations preclude large areas of study and are laborious and time consuming. Near-surface remote phenology with digital cameras is still area-limited but reduces considerably manpower. Furthermore, it has proven to be an important tool for monitoring several species and accurately accessing leaf changes. In this project, we aim to apply new technologies to enhance the capabilities of near-surface remote phenological observation to detect changes on various scales, from leaves to ecosystems. Our goal is to address theoretical and practical problems involving the combination of two remote phenology monitoring systems: digital and hyperspectral cameras at three scales: on-the-ground, phenology tower, and near-space using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). It is geared towards four innovative objectives: (a) to develop a protocol for extracting spectral data from the RGB color channels, improving the information that can be derived from low-cost digital monitoring systems; (b) to apply those technologies to extract plant ecophysiological data advancing our knowledge of plant seasonal responses to environmental drivers in the tropics to climate change; (c) to develop near-surface monitoring system for reproductive phenophases i.e., flowering and fruiting, based on digital and hyperspectral images truth-grounded by species-specific spectral data; and (d) to advance and to apply novel database, image processing, machine learning, and visualization models, methods, and algorithms to support acquisition, management, integration, and analysis of phenology data systems from various scales. The research team is composed of Computer Scientists and researchers in Plant Ecology and Phenology. (AU)

Scientific publications

(45)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SILVEIRA, FERNANDO A. O.; BARBOSA, MILTON; BEIROZ, WALLACE; CALLISTO, MARCOS; MACEDO, DIEGO R.; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; NEVES, FREDERICO S.; NUNES, YULE R. F.; SOLAR, RICARDO R.; WILSON FERNANDES, G. Tropical mountains as natural laboratories to study global changes: A long-term ecological research project in a megadiverse biodiversity hotspot. PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS, v. 38, p. 64-73, JUN 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

UCHOA MAIA RODRIGUES, DANIELE C.; MOURA, FELIPE A.; CUNHA, SERGIO AUGUSTO; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Graph visual rhythms in temporal network analyses. GRAPHICAL MODELS, v. 103, MAY 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

GUTIERREZ DE CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA; LUNAU, KLAUS; BATALHA, MARCO ANTONIO; BRINGS, SEBASTIAN; GARCIA DE BRITO, VINICIUS LOURENCO; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA. How flower colour signals allure bees and hummingbirds: a community-level test of the bee avoidance hypothesis. NEW PHYTOLOGIST, v. 222, n. 2, p. 1112-1122, APR 2019. Web of Science Citations: 3.

OLIVEIRA, ALBERTO; OAKLEY, ERIC; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA; ROCHA, ANDERSON. Relevance prediction in similarity-search systems using extreme value theory. JOURNAL OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION AND IMAGE REPRESENTATION, v. 60, p. 236-249, APR 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

MELO DE OLIVEIRA SANTOS, CECILIA LIRA; CAMARGO LAMPARELLI, RUBENS AUGUSTO; DANTAS ARAUJO FIGUEIREDO, GLEYCE KELLY; DUPUY, STEPHANE; BOURY, JULIE; DOS SANTOS LUCIANO, ANA CLAUDIA; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA; LE MAIRE, GUERRIC. Classification of Crops, Pastures, and Tree Plantations along the Season with Multi-Sensor Image Time Series in a Subtropical Agricultural Region. REMOTE SENSING, v. 11, n. 3 FEB 1 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

MENINI, NATHALIA; ALMEIDA, ALEXANDRE E.; LAMPARELLI, RUBENS; LE MAIRE, GUERRIC; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON A.; PEDRINI, HELIO; HIROTA, MARINA; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. A Soft Computing Framework for Image Classification Based on Recurrence Plots. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, v. 16, n. 2, p. 320-324, FEB 2019. Web of Science Citations: 0.

OLLERTON, JEFF; LIEDE-SCHUMANN, SIGRID; ENDRESS, MARY E.; MEVE, ULRICH; RECH, ANDRE RODRIGO; SHUTTLEWORTH, ADAM; KELLER, HECTOR A.; FISHBEIN, MARK; ALVARADO-CARDENAS, LEONARDO O.; AMORIM, FELIPE W.; BERNHARDT, PETER; CELEP, FERHAT; CHIRANGO, YOLANDA; CHIRIBOGA-ARROYO, FIDEL; CIVEYREL, LAURE; COCUCCI, ANDREA; CRANMER, LOUISE; DA SILVA-BATISTA, INARA CAROLINA; DE JAGER, LINDE; DEPRA, MARIANA SCARAMUSSA; DOMINGOS-MELO, ARTHUR; DVORSKY, COURTNEY; AGOSTINI, KAYNA; FREITAS, LEANDRO; GAGLIANONE, MARIA CRISTINA; GALETTO, LEO; GILBERT, MIKE; GONZALEZ-RAMIREZ, IXCHEL; GOROSTIAGUE, PABLO; GOYDER, DAVID; HACHUY-FILHO, LEANDRO; HEIDUK, ANNEMARIE; HOWARD, AARON; IONTA, GRETCHEN; ISLAS-HERNANDEZ, SOFIA C.; JOHNSON, STEVEN D.; JOUBERT, LIZE; KAISER-BUNBURY, CHRISTOPHER N.; KEPHART, SUSAN; KIDYOO, AROONRAT; KOPTUR, SUZANNE; KOSCHNITZKE, CRISTIANA; LAMBORN, ELLEN; LIVSHULTZ, TATYANA; MACHADO, ISABEL CRISTINA; MARINO, SALVADOR; MEMA, LUMI; MOCHIZUKI, KO; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; MRISHA, CHEDIEL K.; MUIRURI, EVALYNE W.; NAKAHAMA, NAOYUKI; NASCIMENTO, VIVIANY TEIXEIRA; NUTTMAN, CLIVE; OLIVEIRA, PAULO EUGENIO; PETER, CRAIG I.; PUNEKAR, SACHIN; RAFFERTY, NICOLE; RAPINI, ALESSANDRO; REN, ZONG-XIN; RODRIGUEZ-FLORES, CLAUDIA I.; ROSERO, LILIANA; SAKAI, SHOKO; SAZIMA, MARLIES; STEENHUISEN, SANDY-LYNN; TAN, CHING-WEN; TORRES, CAROLINA; TROJELSGAARD, KRISTIAN; USHIMARU, ATUSHI; VIEIRA, MILENE FARIA; WIEMER, ANA PIA; YAMASHIRO, TADASHI; NADIA, TARCILA; QUEIROZ, JOEL; QUIRINO, ZELMA. The diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large plant clades: Apocynaceae as a case study. ANNALS OF BOTANY, v. 123, n. 2, SI, p. 311-325, JAN 23 2019. Web of Science Citations: 5.

ESMAEL, AGNALDO APARECIDO; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON ALEX; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. On the ensemble of multiscale object-based classifiers for aerial images: a comparative study. MULTIMEDIA TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS, v. 77, n. 19, p. 24565-24592, OCT 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

NOGUEIRA, KEILLER; FADEL, SAMUEL G.; DOURADO, ICARO C.; WERNECK, RAFAEL DE O.; MUNOZ, V, JAVIER A.; PENATTI, OTAVIO A. B.; CALUMBY, RODRIGO T.; LI, LIN TZY; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON A.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Exploiting ConvNet Diversity for Flooding Identification. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, v. 15, n. 9, p. 1446-1450, SEP 2018. Web of Science Citations: 4.

CALERO, SARA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; RODRIGO, MARIA A. Persistence of submerged macrophytes in a drying world: Unravelling the timing and the environmental drivers to produce drought-resistant propagules. AQUATIC CONSERVATION-MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, v. 28, n. 4, p. 894-909, AUG 2018. Web of Science Citations: 1.

FERNANDES, G. WILSON; BARBOSA, N. P. U.; ALBERTON, B.; BARBIERI, A.; DIRZO, R.; GOULART, F.; GUERRA, T. J.; MORELLATO, L. P. C.; SOLAR, R. R. C. The deadly route to collapse and the uncertain fate of Brazilian rupestrian grasslands. BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION, v. 27, n. 10, p. 2587-2603, AUG 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.

ALVARADO, SWANNI T.; FREIRE SILVA, THIAGO SANNA; ARCHIBALD, SALLY. Management impacts on fire occurrence: A comparison of fire regimes of African and South American tropical savannas in different protected areas. Journal of Environmental Management, v. 218, p. 79-87, JUL 15 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.

MARIANO, GREICE C.; STAGGEMEIER, VANESSA G.; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Multivariate cyclical data visualization using radial visual rhythms: A case study in phenology analysis. ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS, v. 46, p. 19-35, JUL 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

MARUYAMA, PIETRO K.; NUNES, CARLOS E. P.; VIZENTIN-BUGONI, JEFERSON; GUSTAFSSON, SIMONE; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA. Are native bees and Apis mellifera equally efficient pollinators of the rupestrian grassland daisy Aspilia jolyana (Asteraceae)?. Acta Botanica Brasilica, v. 32, n. 3, p. 386-391, JUL-SEP 2018. Web of Science Citations: 1.

ESCOBAR, DIEGO F. E.; SILVEIRA, FERNANDO A. O.; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C. Timing of seed dispersal and seed dormancy in Brazilian savanna: two solutions to face seasonality. ANNALS OF BOTANY, v. 121, n. 6, p. 1197-1209, MAY 11 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

ABERNETHY, KATHARINE; BUSH, EMMA R.; FORGET, PIERRE-MICHEL; MENDOZA, IRENE; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C. Current issues in tropical phenology: a synthesis. Biotropica, v. 50, n. 3, p. 477-482, MAY 2018. Web of Science Citations: 5.

CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; ABERNETHY, KATHARINE; MENDOZA, IRENE. Rethinking tropical phenology: insights from long-term monitoring and novel analytical methods. Biotropica, v. 50, n. 3, p. 371-373, MAY 2018. Web of Science Citations: 3.

GUTIERREZ DE CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA; DE CARVALHO, GUSTAVO HENRIQUE; ALBERTON, BRUNA DE COSTA; REYS, PAULA; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA. Leafing patterns and leaf exchange strategies of a cerrado woody community. Biotropica, v. 50, n. 3, p. 442-454, MAY 2018. Web of Science Citations: 3.

PEREIRA, LUIS A. M.; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. Semi-supervised transfer subspace for domain adaptation. PATTERN RECOGNITION, v. 75, n. SI, p. 235-249, MAR 2018. Web of Science Citations: 8.

SILVA, FERNANDA B.; WERNECK, RAFAEL DE O.; GOLDENSTEIN, SIOME; TABBONE, SALVATORE; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Graph-based bag-of-words for classification. PATTERN RECOGNITION, v. 74, p. 266-285, FEB 2018. Web of Science Citations: 8.

COELHO, MARCEL S.; NEVES, FREDERICO DE SIQUEIRA; PERILLO, LUCAS NEVES; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; WILSON FERNANDES, G. Forest archipelagos: A natural model of metacommunity under the threat of fire. FLORA, v. 238, n. SI, p. 244-249, JAN 2018. Web of Science Citations: 6.

MORELLATO, L. PATRICIA C.; SILVEIRA, FERNANDO A. O. Plant life in campo rupestre: New lessons from an ancient biodiversity hotspot. FLORA, v. 238, n. SI, p. 1-10, JAN 2018. Web of Science Citations: 6.

SOARES, NATALIA COSTA; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA. Crepuscular pollination and reproductive ecology of Trembleya laniflora (Melastomataceae), an endemic species in mountain rupestrian grasslands. FLORA, v. 238, n. SI, p. 138-147, JAN 2018. Web of Science Citations: 4.

WERNECK, RAFAEL DE OLIVEIRA; DE ALMEIDA, WALDIR RODRIGUES; STEIN, BERNARDO VECCHIA; PAZINATO, DANIEL VATANABE; MENDES JUNIOR, PEDRO RIBEIRO; BIZETTO PENATTI, OTAVIO AUGUSTO; ROCHA, ANDERSON; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. Kuaa: A unified framework for design, deployment, execution, and recommendation of machine learning experiments. FUTURE GENERATION COMPUTER SYSTEMS-THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ESCIENCE, v. 78, n. 1, p. 59-76, JAN 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

Are native bees and Apis mellifera equally efficient pollinators of the rupestrian grassland daisy Aspilia jolyana (Asteraceae)?. Acta Botanica Brasilica, n. ahead, p. -, 2018.

CORDOVA NEIRA, MANUEL ALBERTO; MENDES JUNIOR, PEDRO RIBEIRO; ROCHA, ANDERSON; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. Data-Fusion Techniques for Open-Set Recognition Problems. IEEE ACCESS, v. 6, p. 21242-U24, 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

GUIMARAES PEDRONETTE, DANIEL CARLOS; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Unsupervised rank diffusion for content-based image retrieval. Neurocomputing, v. 260, p. 478-489, OCT 18 2017. Web of Science Citations: 0.

CALUMBY, RODRIGO TRIPODI; GONCALVES, MARCOS ANDRE; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. Diversity-based interactive learning meets multimodality. Neurocomputing, v. 259, n. SI, p. 159-175, OCT 11 2017. Web of Science Citations: 3.

ALMEIDA, ALEXANDRE E.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Remote Sensing Image Classification Using Genetic-Programming-Based Time Series Similarity Functions. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, v. 14, n. 9, p. 1499-1503, SEP 2017. Web of Science Citations: 2.

BRITO, V. L. G.; MAIA, F. R.; SILVEIRA, F. A. O.; FRACASSO, C. M.; LEMOS-FILHO, J. P.; FERNANDES, G. W.; GOLDENBERG, R.; MORELLATO, L. P. C.; SAZIMA, M.; STAGGEMEIER, V. G. Reproductive phenology of Melastomataceae species with contrasting reproductive systems: contemporary and historical drivers. Plant Biology, v. 19, n. 5, p. 806-817, SEP 2017. Web of Science Citations: 9.

DOS SANTOS, JOYCE MIRANDA; DE MOURA, EDLENO SILVA; DA SILVA, ALTIGRAN SOARES; TORRES, RICARDO DA SILVA. Color and texture applied to a signature-based bag of visual words method for image retrieval. MULTIMEDIA TOOLS AND APPLICATIONS, v. 76, n. 15, p. 16855-16872, AUG 2017. Web of Science Citations: 3.

ALVARADO, SWANNI T.; FORNAZARI, TAMIRES; COSTOLA, ANDRESA; CERDEIRA MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA; FREIRE SILVA, THIAGO SANNA. Drivers of fire occurrence in a mountainous Brazilian cerrado savanna: Tracking long-term fire regimes using remote sensing. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS, v. 78, p. 270-281, JUL 2017. Web of Science Citations: 14.

ALBERTON, BRUNA; TORRES, RICARDO DA S.; CANCIAN, LEONARDO F.; BORGES, BRUNO D.; ALMEIDA, JURANDY; MARIANO, GREICE C.; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON; CERDEIRA MORELLATOA, LEONOR PATRICIA. Introducing digital cameras to monitor plant phenology in the tropics: applications for conservation. PERSPECTIVES IN ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION, v. 15, n. 2, p. 82-90, APR-JUN 2017. Web of Science Citations: 11.

BUISSON, ELISE; ALVARADO, SWANNI T.; LE STRADIC, SOIZIG; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C. Plant phenological research enhances ecological restoration. RESTORATION ECOLOGY, v. 25, n. 2, p. 164-171, MAR 2017. Web of Science Citations: 17.

MENDES JUNIOR, PEDRO R.; DE SOUZA, ROBERTO M.; WERNECK, RAFAEL DE O.; STEIN, BERNARDO V.; PAZINATO, DANIEL V.; DE ALMEIDA, WALDIR R.; PENATTI, OTAVIO A. B.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S.; ROCHA, ANDERSON. Nearest neighbors distance ratio open-set classifier. MACHINE LEARNING, v. 106, n. 3, p. 359-386, MAR 2017. Web of Science Citations: 6.

MENDOZA, IRENE; PERES, CARLOS A.; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C. Continental-scale patterns and climatic drivers of fruiting phenology: A quantitative Neotropical review. GLOBAL AND PLANETARY CHANGE, v. 148, p. 227-241, JAN 2017. Web of Science Citations: 22.

LEITE, ROGER A.; SCHNORR, LUCAS MELLO; ALMEIDA, JURANDY; ALBERTON, BRUNA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S.; COMBA, JOAO L. D. PhenoVis - A tool for visual phenological analysis of digital camera images using chronological percentage maps. INFORMATION SCIENCES, v. 372, p. 181-195, DEC 1 2016. Web of Science Citations: 4.

ALMEIDA, JURANDY; PEDRONETTE, DANIEL C. G.; ALBERTON, BRUNA C.; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Unsupervised Distance Learning for Plant Species Identification. IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, v. 9, n. 12, 1, SI, p. 5325-5338, DEC 2016. Web of Science Citations: 4.

FARIA, FABIO A.; ALMEIDA, JURANDY; ALBERTON, BRUNA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Fusion of time series representations for plant recognition in phenology studies. PATTERN RECOGNITION LETTERS, v. 83, n. 2, p. 205-214, NOV 1 2016. Web of Science Citations: 7.

ALMEIDA, JURANDY; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON A.; ALBERTON, BRUNA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Phenological visual rhythms: Compact representations for fine-grained plant species identification. PATTERN RECOGNITION LETTERS, v. 81, n. SI, p. 90-100, OCT 1 2016. Web of Science Citations: 13.

FARIA, FABIO A.; ALMEIDA, JURANDY; ALBERTON, BRUNA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; ROCHA, ANDERSON; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Time series-based classifier fusion for fine-grained plant species recognition. PATTERN RECOGNITION LETTERS, v. 81, n. SI, p. 101-109, OCT 1 2016. Web of Science Citations: 5.

MARIANO, GREICE C.; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; ALMEIDA, JURANDY; ALBERTON, BRUNA; DE CAMARGO, MARIA GABRIELA G.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Modeling plant phenology database: Blending near-surface remote phenology with on-the-ground observations. ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING, v. 91, p. 396-408, JUN 2016. Web of Science Citations: 6.

SILVEIRA, FERNANDO A. O.; NEGREIROS, DANIEL; BARBOSA, NEWTON P. U.; BUISSON, ELISE; CARMO, FLAVIO F.; CARSTENSEN, DANIEL W.; CONCEICAO, ABEL A.; CORNELISSEN, TATIANA G.; ECHTERNACHT, LIVIA; WILSON FERNANDES, G.; GARCIA, QUEILA S.; GUERRA, TADEU J.; JACOBI, CLAUDIA M.; LEMOS-FILHO, JOSE P.; LE STRADIC, SOIZIG; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; NEVES, FREDERICO S.; OLIVEIRA, RAFAEL S.; SCHAEFER, CARLOS E.; VIANA, PEDRO L.; LAMBERS, HANS. Ecology and evolution of plant diversity in the endangered campo rupestre: a neglected conservation priority. PLANT AND SOIL, v. 403, n. 1-2, p. 129-152, JUN 2016. Web of Science Citations: 153.

ALMEIDA, JURANDY; DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON A.; MIRANDA, WANER O.; ALBERTON, BRUNA; MORELLATO, LEONOR PATRICIA C.; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Deriving vegetation indices for phenology analysis using genetic programming. ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS, v. 26, n. 3, p. 61-69, MAR 2015. Web of Science Citations: 11.

DOS SANTOS, JEFERSSON A.; PENATTI, OTAVIO A. B.; GOSSELIN, PHILIPPE-HENRI; FALCAO, ALEXANDRE X.; PHILIPP-FOLIGUET, SYLVIE; TORRES, RICARDO DA S. Efficient and Effective Hierarchical Feature Propagation. IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, v. 7, n. 12, SI, p. 4632-4643, DEC 2014. Web of Science Citations: 10.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MORELLATO, Leonor Patricia Cerdeira. e-Phonology Collector : a robust solution for data collection using mobile plataforms. 2016. Master's Dissertation.