We present a variational method for unfolding of the cortex based on a user-chosen point of view as an alternative to more traditional global flattening methods, which incur more distortion around the region of interest. Our approach involves three novel contributions. The first is an energy function and its corresponding gradient flow to measure the average visibility of a region of interest of a surface from a given viewpoint. The second is an additional energy function and flow designed to preserve the 3D topology of the evolving surface. This latter contribution receives significant focus in this thesis as it is crucial to obtain the desired unfolding effect derived from the first energy functional and flow. Without it, the resulting topology changes render the unconstrained evolution uninteresting for the purpose of cortical visualization, exploration, and inspection. The third is a method that dramatically improves the computational speed of the 3D topology-preservation approach by creating a tree structure of the triangulated surface and using a recursion technique.

As organisations adapt to the rigorous demands set by global markets, the supply chains that constitute their logistics networks become increasingly complex. This often has a detrimental effect on the supply chain visibility within the organisation, which may in turn have a negative impact on the core business of the organisation. This paper aims to determine how organisations can benefit in terms of improving their logistical supply chain visibility by implementing a Digital Twin — an all-encompassing virtual representation of the physical assets that constitute the logistics system. Furthermore, challenges related to implementation and the necessary steps to overcome these challenges were examined.  The results of the study are that Digital Twins may prove beneficial to organisations in terms of improving metrics of analytics, diagnostics, predictions and descriptions of physical assets. However, these benefits come with notable challenges — managing implementation and maintenance costs, ensuring proper information modelling, adopting new technology and leading the organisation through the changes that an implementation would entail.  In conclusion, a Digital Twin is a powerful tool suitable for organisations where the benefits outweigh the challenges of the initial implementation. Therefore, careful consideration must be taken to ensure that the investment is worthwhile. Further research is required to determine the most efficient way of introducing a Digital Twin to a logistical supply chain. / I takt med att organisationer anpassar sig till de hårda krav som ställs av den globala marknaden ökar också komplexiteten i deras logistiknätverk. Detta har ofta en negativ effekt på synligheten inom logistikkedjan i organisationen, vilken i sin tur kan ha en negativ påverkan på organisationens kärnverksamhet. Målet med denna studie är att utröna de fördelar som organisationer kan uppnå vad gäller att förbättra synligheten inom deras logistikkedjor genom att implementera en Digital Tvilling — en allomfattande virtuell representation av de fysiska tillgångar som utgör logistikkedjan.  Resultaten av studien är att Digitala Tvillingar kan vara gynnsamma för organisationer när det gäller att förbättra analys, diagnostik, prognoser och beskrivningar av fysiska tillgångar. Implementationen medför dock utmaningar — hantering av implementations- och driftskostnader, utformning av informationsmodellering, anammandet av ny teknik och ledarskap genom förändringsarbetet som en implementering skulle innebära.  Sammanfattningsvis är en Digital Tvilling ett verktyg som lämpar sig för organisationer där fördelarna överväger de utmaningar som tillkommer med implementationen. Därmed bör beslutet om en eventuell implementation endast ske efter noggrant övervägande. Vidare forskning behöver genomföras för att utröna den mest effektiva metoden för att introducera en Digital Tvilling till en logistikkedja.

Worldwide, the need for effective humanitarian aid is growing, and continuous aid such as commodity distribution plays a major role in ensuring sustained wellbeing. In literature, information and communication technology (ICT) has been recognized and suggested to enhance the performance and achieve higher social impact of humanitarian supply chains. Nevertheless, so far there has been little research on implementation practices and difficulties that can arise in the specific context. In pursuit of seizing the full benefits of ICT in humanitarian setting, there is an interest to further study ICT adoption among humanitarian practitioners, above all those in the most decentralized parts of the chain, which are more likely to be overlooked. This thesis aims to investigate what challenges arise when implementing an ICT trackability solution in local units of humanitarian supply chains. In this context, the concept of trackability was introduced to refer to monitoring of the downstream flow of a commodity until its intended beneficiary. Based on a thorough literature review at the intersection of Humanitarian Logistics, Supply Chain Visibility and ICT Adoption research, a substantiated theoretical context was built. Further, a case study on Colombian childcare centers, which serve as local service units of a national Food Aid Program aimed at early childhood, allowed for deep-going insights on the work of educators and the dynamics of such local humanitarian entities. Analysis of the empirical findings demonstrated the presence of numerous, both facilitating and inhibiting, ICT adoption antecedents. Five main challenges were identified: high workload, lack of technological skills, staff’s impact-oriented motivation in contrast to the tool’s broader efficiency goal, trackabilitiy’s monitoring nature as a threat to staff’s aspired autonomy, and deficient infrastructure. The study shows that these challenges can be interpreted as misalignments between the nature of attributes intrinsic to the humanitarian organization and that of the technological tool itself which is often shaped by commercial principles. The identified frictions could either be associated to a difference in operational reality or to diverging strategic goals, which mirror the overall discrepancies between commercial and humanitarian supply chains described in literature. The conclusion was drawn that the elucidated divide or incompatibility asks for bridging efforts in order to overcome implementation difficulties and seize the promising advantages of ICT in humanitarian setting. According to the findings, this should be done by enabling local practitioners rather than monitoring these. / Globalt ökar behovet av effektivt humanitärt bistånd, och kontinuerligt stöd såsom råvarudistribution spelar en viktig roll för att säkerställa ett fortsatt välbefinnande. I litteraturen har informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) erkänts och föreslagits förbättra prestationen och höja den sociala påverkan hos humanitära försörjningskedjor. Å andra sidan, finns det hittills ringa forskning på praktisk implementering och utmaningar som kan uppstå i det givna sammanhanget. I strävan att ta vara på samtliga fördelar som IKT kan ha i humanitärt sammanhang finns det intresse att ytterligare studera införande och användning av IKT bland humanitära praktiker, främst i de mest decentraliserade delarna av kedjan, då dessa är mer sannolika att förbises. Examensarbetet syftar till att undersöka vilka utmaningar som uppstår vid implementering av en IKT lösning för spårbarhet i lokala enheter av humanitära försörjningskedjor. Baserat på en grundlig litteraturöversikt vid skärningspunkten för forskning kring humanitär logistik, försörjningskedjor och IKTs införande och användning skapades ett teoretiskt ramverk. Vidare har en fallstudie av colombianska daghem, som utgör de lokala serviceenheter av ett nationellt program för livsmedelsbistånd riktad till tidig barndom, bidragit till djupgående insikter i praktikernas arbete och dynamiken i sådana lokala humanitära enheter. Analysen av det empiriska materialet påvisade många, både underlättande och inhiberande, faktorer för IKT införande och användning. Fem huvudsakliga utmaningar identifierades: hög arbetsbelastning, brist på tekniska färdigheter, personalens motivation baserad i direkt social påverkan i kontrast till IKT lösningens bredare effektivitetsmål, kopplingen mellan spårbarhet och övervakning som ett hot för autonomi, samt bristande infrastruktur. Studien visar att dessa kan tolkas som motsättningar mellan attribut hos den humanitära organisationen och attribut för det tekniska verktyget som oftast är format utifrån kommersiella principer. De identifierade friktionerna kan antingen vara kopplade till en skillnad i operativ verklighet eller i divergerande strategiska mål, vilket speglar de övergripande skillnaderna mellan kommersiella och humanitära försörjningskedjor som beskrivs i litteraturen. Slutsatsen drogs att den uppenbara klyftan eller oförenligheten manar till överbryggande ansträngningar för att övervinna de implementeringssvårigheter som uppstår och för att ta vara på IKT’s lovade fördelar i humanitär miljö. Enligt resultaten bör detta göras med fokus på att stödja lokala utövare istället för att övervaka dessa.

As the demand for 3D maps from LIDAR scanners increases, delivering high-quality maps becomes critical. One way to ensure the quality of such maps is through point cloud alignment classification, which aims to classify the alignment error between two registered point clouds. Specifically, we present the classifier FACT (Feature-Aware Classification Transformer), consisting of two main modules: feature extraction and classification. Descriptive features are extracted from the joint point cloud, which are then processed by a point transformer-based neural network to predict the alignment error class. In a ten-class point cloud alignment classification test, FACT achieved 92.4% accuracy, where the alignment error ranged from zero meters and radians to 0.9 meters and 0.09 radians. Remarkably, the classifier only made one misprediction beyond neighboring classes, exhibiting its ability to detect alignment errors as the classes have an inherent order. Furthermore, when benchmarked on two binary classification tasks, FACT showed significantly superior performance over the baseline and even obtained 100.0% accuracy for the easier of the two tasks. FACT not only detects potential errors in 3D maps but also estimates their magnitude, leading to more reliable 3D maps with quality estimations for each transformation.

Depuis sa création, en 2004, le réseau social Facebook a reçu une attention médiatique dont l’ampleur est phénoménale. Avec des millions d’utilisateurs à son actif, le site est aussi devenu, dans certains milieux, presqu’incontournable. Malgré les appels à la prudence et à la vigilance dans l’utilisation de Facebook qui se multiplient – notamment concernant des enjeux de surveillance et de protection de la vie privée – nombre d’utilisateurs continuent d’y archiver des contenus, dont les photographies personnelles constituent une part importante. Ce mémoire propose d’explorer dans quelle mesure les pratiques associées à la photographie personnelle pourraient être comprises dans les processus de formation d’« éthiques de l’existence » (Foucault, 1984a; 1984b). Ces éthiques proposent aux individus des codes de conduite et des ensembles de valeurs à partir desquels le sujet s’adonne à un travail sur lui-même et se constitue en être « éthique » menant une existence « esthétique » (idem). Le terrain a pris la forme de séries de rencontres effectuées auprès de trois participantes. À la lumière de leurs pratiques photographiques, je suggère d’envisager la photographie personnelle comme un lieu où s’effectue la mise en oeuvre de techniques de soi. J’avance que de tels procédés favorisent la production d’un sujet se comprenant comme unifié et cohérent, tout comme ils participent à l’esthétisation de ce sujet et de son existence. / Since Facebook was first launched, in 2004, the social network has received a tremendous amount of media coverage. Today, as users are counted by millions, Facebook now seems to have become, in certain circles, totally ubiquitous. Despite growing numbers of warnings for caution in the uses of Facebook – which are frequently associated to privacy or surveillance issues – many users keep uploading content, such as personal photographs, on the social network. This thesis aims to explore the extent to which practices of personal photography may be involved in the formations of what Michel Foucault termed "ethics of the self" (Foucault, 1984a; 1984b). These ethics provide individuals with values, guidelines and codes of conduct from which the subject can engage in the production of his self as an "ethic" being, living an "aesthetic" life (idem). Research was supported with a series of interviews conducted with three volunteers. In the light of their photographic practices, I assert that it is possible to understand personal photography as a fertile site where techniques of the self can be made and elaborated. I suggest that through personal photography, these processes encourage the production of a united and consistent subject, and that these practices also contribute to the aestheticisation of the subject as well as its existence.

Cette thèse vise à repérer l'impact de l'inclusion d'élèves handicapés en milieu scolaire ordinaire sur les représentations sociales du handicap et de l'altérité et les attitudes des collégiens. Il s'agit particulièrement d'étudier l'effet de l'interaction des facteurs contact, visibilité et importunité du handicap sur leur évolution. Ce travail s'inscrit dans une approche structurale des représentations sociales. L'objectif est de repérer le contenu et la structure des représentations sociales du handicap et de l'altérité, notamment les éléments centraux qui en constituent les éléments stables. Les attitudes dépendant des représentations sociales, celles portant sur le handicap ont été étudiées. 549 élèves de 6° et de 5° ont été interrogés en début et fin d'année scolaire (représentation sociale et attitude initiales vs finales). Les résultats montrent : 1) que le handicap est un élément central de la représentation sociale de l'altérité ; 2) que la dimension médicale est massivement présente dans la représentation sociale du handicap et occupe une place centrale; 3) que l'attitude des collégiens à l'égard de leurs pairs handicapés et envers la politique inclusive est nettement favorable ; 4) que l'évolution des représentations sociales et des attitudes des collégiens dépend de l'interaction des facteurs contact, visibilité et importunité du handicap. / This thesis aims sought to gauge the impact of including pupils with disabilities in ordinary schools on the social representations of disability and otherness and attitudes held by their classmates. We mainly want to study the effect that the interaction of contact, visibility and intrusiveness of the handicap has on their evolution. This work is part of a structural approach of social representations. The purpose is to identify the content and internal structure of social representation, and more particularly the core elements that are the steady part of that structure. Attitudes resulting from social representations have been studied. 549 pupils in the first and second years of junior high school have been interviewed first at the beginning and then at the end of school year (initial social representation and attitudes versus final one). The results showed: 1) That disability is a major element of the otherness' social representation; 2) That the medical aspect is both massively present and central in the social representation of disability; 3) That pupils' reaction towards the inclusive policy and disabled students is clearly positive; 4) That evolution of pupils' social representations and attitudes depends on the interaction between contact, visibility and intrusiveness of the handicap.

[pt] Em a Verdade e as Formas Jurídicas, transcrição de cinco conferências realizadas em 1973, Michel Foucault desenvolve a demonstração do vínculo entre os sistemas de verdade e as práticas sociais e políticas de onde eles provêm e onde se investem. Na análise dessa problemática o autor chega a destacar que só podem haver certos tipos de sujeito de conhecimento, certas ordens de verdade, certos domínios do saber a partir de determinadas condições sociais, políticas e históricas que são o solo em que se formam o sujeito, os domínios do saber e as relações com a verdade. Assim, as formas jurídicas - práticas judiciárias -são apresentadas como um dos campos de origem de modelos de verdade que circulam ainda pela sociedade, e que se infligem não somente no campo do domínio da política, como também no domínio do comportamento cotidiano e até na ordem da ciência. Questão, inclusive, que viria a ser largamente desenvolvida em Vigiar e Punir, lançado em 1975. O presente trabalho busca evidenciar que essa questão atravessa diversas obras de Foucault, como, por exemplo, em: História da loucura: na idade clássica, Vigiar e Punir, A história da loucura: a vontade de saber, Em defesa da sociedade; Segurança, Território e População, e Nascimento da biopolítica. Cada época e cada livro testificando dispositivos próprios de enunciados e de visibilidades, formas de exterioridade, que se dispersam e se disseminam, arregimentadas em um diagrama de forças – o poder como exercício e o saber como regulamento. Problematizar o direito sob uma perspectiva não essencialista, em que a dimensão da historicidade e da multiplicidade assume papel capital. Pensar diferentemente, oferecendo novas formas de analisar o direito. Uma aposta na pluralidade, nas práticas sociais como produtoras de tipos de subjetividade, formas de saber e, por conseguinte, relações variadas entre o homem e a verdade Fortalece-se, assim, a possibilidade da criação, da invenção, da provisoriedade das coisas e da diferença. / [en] In Truth and Judicial Forms,series of lectures presented in 1973, Michel Foucault conceive relationships between systems of truth and social practices and policies where they come from and where they invest. During the analysis of this problematic, the author notice that can only be certain types of subject of knowledge, orders of facts,realms of knowledge from social, political and historical conditions that are ground of formation of subject, realms of knowledge and relations with truth. So, the judicial forms – practices- are presented as one of the source models of truth that still circulated in society, which influence policy, daily behavior and science. Matter that would be largely developed in Discipline and Punish (1975). The present article is meant to discuss that this proposition is evident through Foucault´s work, just like in:History of madness in the classical age, Discipline and Punish, Society Must Be Defended Security, Territory and Population and TheBirth of Biopolitics Each season and each book testifying about own set of devices ad visibilities, exteriority forms, that disperse and spread, regimented in a diagram of forces – power as exercise and knowledge as regulation. Problematize the law in a non-essentialist perspective, when the historic dimension assumes the place. Think differently, offering a new form of law review. It is a bet in plurality, social practices as a producer of types of subjective, forms of knowledge and different relations between men and truth. It is a way to fortify possibilities of creation, invention and the difference.

Les opérations géométriques appliquées aux maillages 3D introduisent des dis torsions géométriques qui peuvent être visibles pour un observateur humain. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions l’impact perceptuel de ces distorsions. Plus précisément, notre objectif est de calculer le seuil à partir duquel les distorsions géométriques locales deviennent visibles. Afin d’atteindre notre but, nous définissons tout d’abord des caractéristiques perceptuelles pour les maillages 3D. Nous avons ensuite effectué une étude expérimentale des propriétés du système visuel humain (sensibilité au contraste et effet du masquage visuel) en observant un maillage 3D. Les résultats de ces expériences sont finalement utilisés pour proposer un algorithme qui calcule le seuil de visibilité relatif à une distorsion locale. L’algorithme proposé s’adapte aux différentes conditions d’affichage (résolution et taille de l’écran), d’illumination et au type de rendu. Enfin, nous montrons l’utilité d’un tel algorithme en intégrant le seuil de visibilité dans le pipeline de plusieurs opérations géométriques (ex: simplification, subdivision adaptative) / Geometric operations applied to a 3D mesh introduce geometric distortion in the form of vertex displacement that can be visible to a human observer. In this thesis, we have studied the perceptual impact of these geometric distortions. More precisely, our goal is to compute the threshold beyond which a local geometric distortion becomes visible. In order to reach this goal, we start by evaluating perceptually relevant properties on 3D meshes. We have then performed a series of psychophysical experiments in which we measured the visibility threshold relative to various properties of the Human Visual System (contrast sensitivity and visual masking). The results of these experiments allowed us to propose an algorithm that computes the visibility threshold relative to a local geometric distortion. This algorithm is capable of adapting to the different display condition of 3D meshes (resolution, display size, illumination condition and rendering). Finally, we showcase the utility of our work by integrating the developed perceptual method in several geometric operations such as mesh simplification and adaptive subdivision

La vision représente un des plus importants signaux en robotique. Une caméra monoculaire peut fournir de riches informations visuelles à une fréquence raisonnable pouvant être utilisées pour la commande, l’estimation d’état ou la navigation dans des environnements inconnus par exemple. Il est cependant nécessaire de respecter des contraintes visuelles spécifiques telles que la visibilité de mesures images et les occultations durant le mouvement afin de garder certaines cibles visuelles dans le champ de vision. Les quadrirotors sont dotés de capacités de mouvement très réactives du fait de leur structure compacte et de la configuration des moteurs. De plus, la vision par une caméra embarquée (fixe) va subir des rotations dues au sous-actionnement du système. Dans cette thèsenous voulons bénéficier de l’agilité du quadrirotor pour réaliser plusieurs tâches de navigation basées vision. Nous supposons que l’estimation d’état repose uniquement sur la fusion capteurs d’une centrale inertielle (IMU) et d’une caméra monoculaire qui fournit des estimations de pose précises. Les contraintes visuelles sont donc critiques et difficiles dans un tel contexte. Dans cette thèse nous exploitons l’optimisation numérique pour générer des trajectoires faisables satisfaisant un certain nombre de contraintes d’état, d’entrées et visuelles non linéaires. A l’aide la platitude différentielle et de la paramétrisation par des B-splines nous proposons une stratégie de replanification performante inspirée de la commande prédictive pour générer des trajectoires lisses et agiles. Enfin, nous présentons un algorithme de planification en temps minimum qui supporte des pertes de visibilité intermittentes afin de naviguer dans des environnements encombrés plus vastes. Cette contribution porte l’incertitude de l’estimation d’état au niveau de la planification pour produire des trajectoires robustes et sûres. Les développements théoriques discutés dans cette thèse sont corroborés par des simulations et expériences en utilisant un quadrirotor. Les résultats reportés montrent l’efficacité des techniques proposées. / Vision constitutes one of the most important cues in robotics. A single monocular camera can provide rich visual information at a reasonable rate that can be used as a feedback for control, state estimation of mobile robots or safe navigation in unknown environments for instance. However, it is necessary to satisfy particular visual constraints on the image such as visibility and occlusion constraints during motion to keep some visual targets visible. Quadrotors are endowed with very reactive motion capabilities due to their compact structure and motor configuration. Moreover, vision from a (fixed) on-board camera will suffer from rotation motions due to the system underactuation. In this thesis, we want to benefit from the system aggressiveness to perform several vision-based navigation tasks. We assume state estimation relies solely on sensor fusion of an onboard inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a monocular camera that provides reliable pose estimates. Therefore, visual constraints are challenging and critical in this context. In this thesis we exploit numerical optimization to design feasible trajectories satisfying several state, input and visual nonlinear constraints. With the help of differential flatness and B-spline parametrization we will propose an efficient replanning strategy inspired form Model Predictive Control to generate smooth and agile trajectories. Finally, we propose a minimum-time planning algorithm that handles intermittent visibility losses in order to navigate in larger cluttered environments. This contribution brings state estimation uncertainty at the planning stage to produce robust and safe trajectories. All the theoretical developments discussed in this thesis are corroborated by simulations and experiments run by using a quadrotor UAV. The reported results show the effectiveness of proposed techniques.

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