Species identifications have been historically difficult in the economically important spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) pest complex. Morphological, ecological, behavioural, and genetic characters have been studied to try to understand the taxonomy of this group, but diagnostic character states differ in frequency rather than being complete replacements between each species. I developed a morphology-based character system that focuses on forewing colour components (Chapter 2), as well as eight simple sequence repeats (SSRs, also referred to as microsatellite markers) (Chapter 3). I tested these along with a 470 bp region of COI mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (Chapter 2, 4) to determine their congruence with putative species that were identified by adaptive traits (larval host plant, length of larval diapause, larval and adult morphology, pheromone attraction, distribution). The morphometrics system was effective for identification of the five species tested, with only slight overlap between C. fumiferana and C. biennis. MtDNA distinguished C. fumiferana and C. pinus pinus, but the remaining species shared haplotypes. SSRs distinguished four species (C. fumiferana, C. pinus pinus, C. retiniana, C. lambertiana) but the remaining four species that were included in this survey (Chapter 4) remained mixed within two populations. There was evidence for hybridization between several species pairs. I also conducted a detailed study (Chapter 5) in Cypress Hills, an isolated remnant coniferous forest in western Canada, where identifying individuals from the Choristoneura fumiferana complex has been impossible due to the unusual ecogeographic characteristics of the area. I integrated data on behaviour, ecology, morphology, mtDNA, and SSRs, comparing Cypress Hills populations to those from other regions of North America to determine which species they resembled most. I delimited at least three populations, resembling C. fumiferana, C. occidentalis and C. lambertiana. Adult flight phenology, along with pheromone attraction, were identified as major isolating mechanisms between these populations. My studies highlighted the importance of integrative taxonomy for understanding species boundaries. Their patterns of differentiation suggest that spruce budworm species have recently diverged via natural selection in spite of some gene flow. Overall, this work is intended to contribute to more accurate identification of specimens and a better understanding of the evolutionary processes that drive speciation. / Systematics and Evolution

Tooth-whitening or tooth-bleaching has become an integral part of modern dental practice. Today, a large number of whitening products are available on the market which are commonly categorized into dentist-supervised home bleaching, in-office bleaching and over-the-counter bleaching products according to their mode of application. This thesis looks into safety and efficacy of various tooth-whitening products and methods.

Die trockene, offene Erhitzung von Inulin im Bereich zwischen 100 und 220 °C resultiert in einem Abbau der Fructanketten. Dabei entsteht in Abhängigkeit vom pH-Wert ein weites Spektrum an Abbauprodukten, primär Mono- und Disaccharide, vorrangig Fructose und verschiedene Di-D-Fructose Dianhydride (DFDA). Da bisher nur ein DFDA als kommerzieller Standard erhältlich ist, wurden aus einem Inulinkaramell nach Aufreinigung per Flash-Chromatographie und semipräparativer HPLC-RI vier DFDA isoliert und identifiziert. Dabei handelt es sich um α-D-Fruf-1,2´:2,3´-β-D-Fruf (DFA III), α-D-Fruf-1,2´:2,1´-α-D-Fruf (DFA VII), β-D-Fruf-1,2´:2,1´-β-D-Fruf und α-D-Fruf-1,2´:2,1´-β-D-Fruf (DFA I). Eine fünfte Verbindung wurde als α-D-Fruf-1,2´-β-D-Fruf identifiziert, welches vermutlich aus α-D-Fruf-1,2´:2,6´-β-D-Fruf (DFA V) freigesetzt wird. Während unter sauren Bedingungen vor allem Fructose bestimmt wurde, kommt es unter basischen Erhitzungsbedingungen verstärkt zur Bildung löslicher, farbiger Verbindungen. Durch einen basischen Zusatz kann außerdem die antioxidative Wirksamkeit der Inulinkaramelle gesteigert werden, wobei wahrscheinlich besonders die farbigen Verbindungen für die antioxidative Wirkung verantwortlich sind. Die präbiotische Wirkung kann durch die Erhitzung nicht gesteigert werden, wird jedoch bei moderaten Erhitzungsbedinungen (etwa 160 °C) nicht verrringert. Durch eine gezielte Erhitzung kann Inulin so verändert werden, dass sich neue Eigenschaften und damit auch neue Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der Lebensmittelindustrie ergeben.

Grafiska profiler har ofta liknande innehåll men ser självklart olika ut för olika verksamheter och varumärken. En cityförening är ett samarbete mellan flera olika aktörer som vill kommunicera med sina målgrupper och samtidigt förmedla det som föreningen tillsammans står för.  Studiens syfte är att ta reda på vad som bör ingå i en grafisk profil för en cityförening och vilka speciella faktorer som finns vid framtagandet av cityföreningars grafiska profiler. För att påvisa möjligheterna till applicering i det som undersökts, används Mjölby City som exempelfall och studien ska generera riktlinjer för Mjölby Citys grafiska profil. För att svara på studiens frågeställningar har en kvalitativ metod används i form av kvalitativa intervjuer och en fokusgrupp i form av en workshop. Intervjuerna har legat till stor vikt vid undersökningen av de speciella faktorerna, då intervjuer har gjorts med företagsrepresentanter som har skapat eller bearbetat grafiska profiler för cityföreningar. Fokusgruppen utfördes för att ta reda på Mjölby Citys identitet, något som bör ligga till grund då en grafisk profil utarbetas. En kvalitativ intervju med en kommunikationsbyrå har också gjorts för att understryka betydelsen av fokusgruppen. I analysen framkommer det att den teoretiska utgångspunkten och den framtagna empirin är eniga i flera aspekter. Studiens slutsatser bygger på att det finns en del speciella faktorer att ta hänsyn till när det gäller cityföreningars grafiska profiler. En cityförening behöver en tydlig grafisk profil och de bör ta hänsyn till att det finns en tredelad målgrupp: besökare, investerare och invånare. Det är viktigt att ta hänsyn till omgivande faktorer så som politik i området, den lokala utvecklingen och marknaden. En grafisk profil för en cityförening bör bygga på kärnvärden och en karaktäristisk identitet. Den grafiska profilen bör vara bred så att alla föreningens verksamheter inryms under den och den ska gå att kombinera med samarbetspartners visuella uttryck. Kulörer bör definieras i den grafiska profilen som kan delas in efter årstider, högtider och evenemang.  Innehållet i Mjölby Citys grafiska profil bör genomsyras av föreningens identitet och kärnvärden. Den bör innehålla en tydlig logotyp och olika harmoniserande färgpaletter för olika händelser. Den bör innehålla definierade teckensnitt, en antikva och en linjär och om Mjölby City finner en lämplig tagline bör även den finnas med i den grafiska profilen. / Corporate visual identities often a have similar kind of content, but of course they differ depending on the corporation or brand. A city center association is a collaboration of a number of different companies willing to communicate with their target groups and in the same time conveying what the association stands for. This thesis work aims to find out what should be included in a corporate visual identity of a city association and what special factors can be found in the development of these kind of corporate visual identities. To demonstrate the applicability of the study, Mjölby City is used as a case study and guidelines for Mjölby City’s visual identity will be generated. To answer the frame of questions of the study, a qualitative method is used in the form of qualitative interviews and a focus group. Considering the aim of finding special factors, the interviews have been of great importance. They were conducted with company representatives who have worked with visual identities for city associations. The focus group was conducted to find out what Mjölby City’s identity is, which is of great importance when a corporate visual identity is developed. A qualitative interview with a communications agency has also been held to emphasize the importance of the focus group. The analysis shows that the theoretical basis and the derived empirical data are in agreement in several aspects. The study findings are based on the existence of special factors to consider during the development of city association’s visual identities. A city association needs a clear visual identity and one should take into consideration that there are three target groups: visitors, investors and residents. It is important to take environmental factors into account such as policies in the region, local development and the marketplace. A city association’s visual identity should be based on core values and distinctiveness. The visual identity should be broad so that all the association’s activities are housed under it. The width is also important for the possibilities to combine it with partners’ visual identities. Colours should be defined in the visual identity program and they should be be classified according to seasons, celebrations and events. The contents of Mjölby City’s visual identity should be permeated of the association’s identity and core values. It should contain a distinct logo and various harmonizing colour palettes for different events. It should also contain defined fonts, one roman and one linear font, and if Mjölby City finds a suitable tagline this should also be included in the visual identity program.

The automatic extraction of knowledge from the world by a robotic system as human beings interpret their environment through their senses is still an unsolved task in Artificial Intelligence. A robotic agent is in contact with the world through its sensors and other electronic components which obtain and process mainly numerical information. Sonar, infrared and laser sensors obtain distance information. Webcams obtain digital images that are represented internally as matrices of red, blue and green (RGB) colour coordinate values. All this numerical values obtained from the environment need a later interpretation in order to provide the knowledge required by the robotic agent in order to carry out a task. Similarly, light wavelengths with specific amplitude are captured by cone cells of human eyes obtaining also stimulus without meaning. However, the information that human beings can describe and remember from what they see is expressed using words, that is qualitatively. The exact process carried out after our eyes perceive light wavelengths and our brain interpret them is quite unknown. However, a real fact in human cognition is that people go beyond the purely perceptual experience to classify things as members of categories and attach linguistic labels to them. As the information provided by all the electronic components incorporated in a robotic agent is numerical, the approaches that first appeared in the literature giving an interpretation of this information followed a mathematical trend. In this thesis, this problem is addressed from the other side, its main aim is to process these numerical data in order to obtain qualitative information as human beings can do. The research work done in this thesis tries to narrow the gap between the acquisition of low level information by robot sensors and the need of obtaining high level or qualitative information for enhancing human-machine communication and for applying logical reasoning processes based on concepts. Moreover, qualitative concepts can be added a meaning by relating them to others. They can be used for reasoning applying qualitative models that have been developed in the last twenty years for describing and interpreting metrical and mathematical concepts such as orientation, distance, velocity, acceleration, and so on. And they can be also understood by human-users both written and read aloud. The first contributions presented are the definition of a method for obtaining fuzzy distance patterns (which include qualitative distances such as ‘near’, far’, ‘very far’ and so on) from the data obtained by any kind of distance sensors incorporated in a mobile robot and the definition of a factor to measure the dissimilarity between those fuzzy patterns. Both have been applied to the integration of the distances obtained by the sonar and laser distance sensors incorporated in a Pioneer 2 dx mobile robot and, as a result, special obstacles have been detected as ‘glass window’, ‘mirror’, and so on. Moreover, the fuzzy distance patterns provided have been also defuzzified in order to obtain a smooth robot speed and used to classify orientation reference systems into ‘open’ (it defines an open space to be explored) or ‘closed’. The second contribution presented is the definition of a model for qualitative image description (QID) by applying the new defined models for qualitative shape and colour description and the topology model by Egenhofer and Al-Taha [1992] and the orientation models by Hernández [1991] and Freksa [1992]. This model can qualitatively describe any kind of digital image and is independent of the image segmentation method used. The QID model have been tested in two scenarios in robotics: (i) the description of digital images captured by the camera of a Pioneer 2 dx mobile robot and (ii) the description of digital images of tile mosaics taken by an industrial camera located on a platform used by a robot arm to assemble tile mosaics. In order to provide a formal and explicit meaning to the qualitative description of the images generated, a Description Logic (DL) based ontology has been designed and presented as the third contribution. Our approach can automatically process any random image and obtain a set of DL-axioms that describe it visually and spatially. And objects included in the images are classified according to the ontology schema using a DL reasoner. Tests have been carried out using digital images captured by a webcam incorporated in a Pioneer 2 dx mobile robot. The images taken correspond to the corridors of a building at University Jaume I and objects with them have been classified into ‘walls’, ‘floor’, ‘office doors’ and ‘fire extinguishers’ under different illumination conditions and from different observer viewpoints. The final contribution is the definition of a similarity measure between qualitative descriptions of shape, colour, topology and orientation. And the integration of those measures into the definition of a general similarity measure between two qualitative descriptions of images. These similarity measures have been applied to: (i) extract objects with similar shapes from the MPEG7 CE Shape-1 library; (ii) assemble tile mosaics by qualitative shape and colour similarity matching; (iii) compare images of tile compositions; and (iv) compare images of natural landmarks in a mobile robot world for their recognition. The contributions made in this thesis are only a small step forward in the direction of enhancing robot knowledge acquisition from the world. And it is also written with the aim of inspiring others in their research, so that bigger contributions can be achieved in the future which can improve the life quality of our society.

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It was investigated the colour reproduction on prints made in ink-jet printer. Experimentally investigated gradation characteristics of CMYK colours. It was made a 26 step strip with raster dots from 0 to 100 %. Prints were made at different printing regimes on papers with different whiteness. Zone optical densities were measured, compared with theoretical density values and gradational distortions were determined. Also were measured 100% raster strips in CIE L*a*b* coordinate system and defined the maximum reproduction of colours in ink-jet printer.

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Tooth-whitening or tooth-bleaching has become an integral part of modern dental practice. Today, a large number of whitening products are available on the market which are commonly categorized into dentist-supervised home bleaching, in-office bleaching and over-the-counter bleaching products according to their mode of application. This thesis looks into safety and efficacy of various tooth-whitening products and methods.