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The development of technology in the 21st century has led to extensive use of various social media platforms worldwide among consumers as well as businesses, which has led to an increased number of advertisements on social media across borders, where they may face differences regarding how their advertisement is perceived considering cultures, religions, and traditions. These cultural factors make it crucial for companies to recognize local cultural differences to succeed globally. Qualitative data collection with semi-structured interviews with fourteen participants from Sweden, India, and Japan was implemented to determine whether there are discrepancies concerning individual perceptions towards social media advertisements. The interviews were conducted by participants taking part in an artificial and recorded Facebook feed consisting of advertisements connected to four of Hofstede's dimensions, as well as pictures, and posts. The empirical findings suggest that the participants' perceptions are subjective and highly individual, but similarities could be linked to their attitude, brand recognition, imagery, and interest. In addition, when considering the Hofstede's model, it indicates that culture infuses the participants perception of the advertisements connected to all four dimensions examined in terms of femininity, masculinity, individualism, collectivism, restraint, indulgence, and power distance. However, the dimensions had less measurable effect related to national culture among the participants regarding each represented nation. With the results of this study, we hope to contribute with increased insight into how consumers based on their national culture can interpret advertisements on social media.

Ce travail concerne la microscopie en champ proche micro-onde et se déroule dans deux bandes de fréquences très différentes. Une première expérience utilise les très hautes fréquences dans la bande 60 GHz. Des sondes électriques de champ proche ont été conçues, réalisées et testées. Nous avons pu montrer une sensibilité à la topographie ainsi qu'à la constante diélectrique locale avec des résolutions très sub-longueur d'onde de lambda/250.La seconde expérience dans la bande de 1 MHz à 1 GHz a concerné la réalisation et l'optimisation de sondes magnétiques à ferrite dédiées au couplage sur les circuits intégrés. Nous avons montré que ce couplage peut s'expliquer par une mutuelle inductance et nous en avons déduit un modèle électrique complet. Des applications expérimentales sur des circuits intégrés dédiés valident la démarche. / Near-field microwave microscopy is developped in two frequency bands. The first experiment involves very high frequencies at 60 GHz. Near-field electric probes were designed, made and tested. We have shown a sensitivity to topography and to the local dielectric constant with a very sub-wavelength resolution of lambda/250.The second experiment was conducted in the 1 MHz - 1 GHz band. Specific magnetic ferrite probes were designed and optimized with aim of integrated circuit coupling applications. We have explained the coupling by a mutual inductance which allowed to derive an electrical circuit model. Experimental applications on dedicated circuits validate the approach.

This study traces archetypal images in selected prose fiction by Edgar Allan Poe and shows his consistent use of such imagery throughout his career, and outlines the archetypal images that Poe uses repeatedly throughout his works: the death of the beautiful woman, death and resurrection, the hero's journey to the underworld, and the quest for forbidden knowledge. The study examines Poe's use of myth to establish and uphold archetypal patterns. Poe's goal when crafting his works was the creation of a single specified effect, and to create his effects, he used the materials at hand. Some of these materials came from his own subconscious; however, a greater portion came from a lifetime of study and his own understanding of the connections between myth and archetypal images.

Overweight people claim to be mistreated by the fashion industry. If they were, it would be in line with branding theory supporting the idea of rejecting fat consumers to improve user imagery for fashion brands. However, fashion companies do not confess to such practices. To shed some light on the subject, I have conducted two studies. The first attempts to illustrate what effect, if any, user imagery has on fashion brands. It is an experiment designed to show how the weight of users affects consumers’ perceptions of mass market fashion brands. The findings show that consumers’ impressions of mass market fashion brands are significantly affected by the weight of its users. The effect of male user imagery is ambiguous. For women’s fashion on the other hand, slender users are to be preferred. In the second study I examine what effects these effects have on assortments. I compare the sizes of mass market clothes to the body sizes of the population. No evidence of discrimination of overweight or obese consumers was found -quite the contrary. The reasons for these unexpected findings may be explained by the requirements a brand must fulfil to make management of the customer base for user imagery purposes viable. The brand must be sensitive to user imagery; a requirement that mass market fashion fulfils. However, it must also be feasible for a company to exclude customers, and while garment sizes can be restricted to achieve this, the high volume sales strategy of mass market fashion apparently cannot.

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This master thesis deals with a classification technique for an automatic detection of different land cover types from combination of high resolution imagery and LiDAR data sets. The main aim is to introduce additional post-processing method to commonly accessible quality data sets which can replace traditional mapping techniques for certain type of applications. Classification is the process of dividing the image into land cover categories which helps with continuous and up-to-date monitoring management. Nowadays, with all the technologies and software available, it is possible to replace traditional monitoring methods with more automated processes to generate accurate and cost-effective results. This project uses object-oriented image analysis (OBIA) to classify available data sets into five main land cover classes. The automate classification rule set providing overall accuracy of 88% of correctly classified land cover types was developed and evaluated in this research. Further, the transferability of developed approach was tested upon the same type of data sets within different study area with similar success – overall accuracy was 87%. Also the limitations found during the investigation procedure are discussed and brief further approach in this field is outlined.

De nombreux travaux de recherche sont actuellement menés afin de rendre les caméras infrarouges plus compactes et moins chères. En infrarouge refroidi, le défi est de proposer un système cryogénique compact pouvant être intégré sur un système à faible capacité d’emport tel qu’un drone. Dans ce cadre, l’utilisation d’une lentille mince en remplacement du filtre froid du cryostat permettrait de limiter la masse supplémentaire à refroidir et de maintenir constant le temps de descente en froid. En infrarouge non refroidi, l’objectif est de concevoir un petit capteur infrarouge bas coût « grand public » que l’on pourra inviter dans nos maisons, nos voitures, voire nos smartphones. L’utilisation d’une lentille mince ouvrirait la voie à des imageurs infrarouges peu onéreux.Dans ce contexte, j’ai choisi d’étudier le comportement d’une lentille de Fresnel dite d’ordre élevé intégrée dans une configuration optique de type landscape lens. J’ai montré que cette architecture optique mince peut fonctionner sur une large bande spectrale et sur un grand champ de vue. Cependant, les lentilles de Fresnel d’ordre élevé étant mal modélisées dans la littérature, j’ai développé mes propres algorithmes de modélisation afin de prévoir les performances d’un tel système. Grâce à cette étude, j’ai ensuite proposé deux systèmes d’imagerie, l’un refroidi et l’autre non refroidi. Chacun des deux systèmes a fait l’objet d’un prototype et a été entièrement caractérisé expérimentalement. Les résultats expérimentaux obtenus m’ont permis de valider les performances anticipées théoriquement et de mettre en évidence un phénomène de chromatisme diffractif latéral. Ces systèmes ouvrent la voie à deux nouvelles générations de caméras infrarouges. J’ai montré que l’imageur infrarouge refroidi possède une qualité image satisfaisante pour des applications d’aide au pilotage. Le prototype non refroidi est lui entièrement compatible avec des applications domotiques. Il a suscité l’intérêt de différents acteurs industriels. / Miniaturizing infrared optical systems is a research area of great interest nowadays in order to make them lighter and cheaper. In the cooled infrared domain, the objective is to design a compact cryogenic camera that could be integrated in a small-capacity carrier like a drone. To that purpose, replacing the cold filter of the dewar by a thin lens would limit the cooled down mass and would stabilize the cool down time. In the uncooled infrared domain, the objective is to design a small general use camera at a low cost. Its use could be generalized in houses, cars or even smartphones. The use of a thin lens would also pave the way for low-cost infrared imagers. In this context, I chose to study the imagery properties of a high order Fresnel lens integrated in a landscape lens architecture. I have demonstrated that this architecture can be used within a wide spectral range and over a wide field of view. However, current optical design software perform poorly on high order Fresnel lenses. Therefore, I have developed my own algorithms to model the performances of such a system. With that study, I have been able to design two prototypes with their own objectives: the first one is cooled and the second one is uncooled. Both systems have been demonstrated and entirely characterized. The experiment results have validated the theoretical performances of the systems and they highlighted an original kind of lateral chromatic aberration.These two systems pave the way to two new generations of infrared cameras. Indeed, on one hand I have proved that the cooled infrared quality may be good enough to qualify for an aircraft piloting aid. On the other hand, the uncooled prototype is fully compatible with low cost surveillance applications and the system raised the interest of various companies.

Arguably, the practice of spiritual healing is simple in that it requires only the human body without utilizing a known physical means of intervention. Yet, it is confounding because its mechanisms, such as the belief and ability of the healer, are unable to be measured with a device. Given that, in recent years, spiritual healing has been found to be among the most prevalent practices in the field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and that studies measuring its efficacy show variable results, it is important to understand its underlying mechanisms. Researchers have been studying the practice of spiritual healing, finding that, although the spiritual healer is not considered an actual device, metaphorically speaking, evidence suggests that she or he appears to be the most refined “instrument” of measurement. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the perceptions of spiritual healers, this qualitative case study asks: what is the role of the mental imagery of ten spiritual healers and their three clients over the course of three spiritual healings? To determine this, the study presents the following subquestions: 1) How do spiritual healers construct, experience, and express mental imagery during a spiritual healing treatment? 2) What kind, if any, comparability is there across different constructions, experiences, and expressions of mental imagery during a spiritual healing as described by the spiritual healers and their clients? Among other findings, this study found that the spiritual healers constructed, experienced, and expressed mental imagery in three main ways, including 1) initial perceptions, 2) meaning and interpretations, and 3) perceptions of spiritual healing. These themes existed for all of the spiritual healers across all cases. Within each of these themes, the researcher then generated a list of subthemes that were most prevalent. This study found that the subthemes and statements were overlapping and distinct to each case. Additionally, this was further confirmed by overlaps among the spiritual healers’ perceptions as they related to each of their clients’ accounts, reiterating that the spiritual healers constructed, experienced, and expressed mental imagery that was specific to each of their clients.