In the last decade there is a rising interest in thermoelectric applications. Thermoelectric generators enabling the direct conversion of the heat into the electricity become attractive. This fact is caused by the demands of environmental operation and saving primary resources. Scientists intensively investigate and develop new materials and structures suitable for these applications. The efficiency of the thermoelectric conversion progressively increases. Unfortunately we have no available materials with sufficient thermoelectric properties which could provide cost-competitive price. Thermoelectric generators seem to be useable devices. For example, in case of the unused waste heat using of the thermoelectric generator can increase the overall effectiveness of the unit despite the low efficiency of the generator. This master thesis deals with the issue of the Peltier modules representing the main part of the thermoelectric generators. The physical principles and structures of the thermoelectric modules and the possibility of thermoelectric power production are described here. In the practical part of this thesis the design of the low power generator utilizing waste heat from biomass boiler Verner A 251.1 is proposed.

Descendant du déflectomètre à boulet du Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées (LCPC), le Heavy Weight Deflectometer (HWD) est devenu aujourd'hui l'appareil de référence international pour la détermination de la portance des chaussées aéronautiques. Il est composé d'une masse tombante qui engendre à la surface de la chaussée, par l'intermédiaire d'une plaque rigide et d'un système d'amortissement, un chargement de type impulsionnel, destiné à simuler le passage d'une roue d'avion. Les déflexions engendrées sont mesurées pendant la période de chargement, au moyen de géophones disposés sous et aux abords de la plaque. Leur analyse permet de déterminer les propriétés structurelles des différentes couches de chaussée au moyen d'une procédure d'identification numérique appelée « calcul inverse » qui consiste à : 1- choisir un modèle mécanique pour décrire le comportement de la chaussée sous chargement, et 2- identifier les paramètres du modèle permettant le meilleur calage entre les données numériques et expérimentales. Un calcul direct peut alors être réalisé, à partir du même modèle mécanique, et en tenant compte des paramètres identifiés, pour estimer la capacité portante de la chaussée et/ou sa durée de vie résiduelle. Les méthodes usuelles d'exploitation des données sont basées, pour les chaussées souples, sur l'utilisation de modèles élastiques multicouches statiques. Les seuls paramètres structuraux à identifier sont les rigidités des différentes couches constitutives. Le calcul inverse est mené à partir de bassins de déflexion pseudo-statiques, reconstitués à partir des déflexions maximales mesurées sur chaque géophone. Les limites de ces méthodes ont été soulignées par de nombreux auteurs. D'une part elles n'exploitent qu'une infime part de l'information disponible (valeurs de pic uniquement des signaux fournis par les géophones et le capteur d'effort), et d'autre part elles reposent sur une modélisation statique très éloignée de la réalité de l'essai. L'objectif de la thèse était donc de développer une méthode avancée d'évaluation des chaussées souples permettant une meilleure représentation physique de l'essai et d'exploiter l'ensemble de l'information disponible. Une modélisation dynamique aux éléments finis, prenant en compte les effets d'inertie et l'amortissement mécanique, y a été proposée. Elle permet le calcul de l'évolution temporelle des déflexions au cours de l'essai. Un algorithme de convergence a été développé sur la base de ce modèle, qui permet d'automatiser la résolution numérique de la phase de calcul inverse. Enfin une méthode d'analyse des résultats du calcul inverse a été proposée à titre d'illustration. Plusieurs expérimentations en vraie grandeur ont été menées afin de valider les phases de calcul inverse et de calcul des déformations critiques. Les essais ont été réalisés sur plusieurs planches de référence, dont l'une est instrumentée. La validation s'est appuyée d'une part sur la comparaison entre propriétés des matériaux identifiées et mesurées en laboratoire, et d'autre part sur l'exploitation de mesures de déformations relatives mesurées in situ. Un outil numérique a par ailleurs été développé, qui permet l'automatisation du maillage aux éléments finis, et le calcul pour les deux étapes consécutives du processus : calcul inverse et calcul direct des déformations relatives.

<p>This thesis consists of two papers on the spectral geometry of locally symmetric spaces of Riemannian and Lorentzian signature. Both works are concerned with the idea of relating analysis on such spaces to structures on their boundaries.</p><p>The first paper is motivated by a conjecture of Patterson on the Selberg zeta function of Kleinian groups. We consider geometrically finite hyperbolic cylinders with non-compact Riemann surfaces of finite area as cross sections. For these cylinders, we present a detailed investigation of the Bunke-Olbrich extension operator under the assumption that the cross section of the cylinder has one cusp. We establish the meromorphic continuation of the extension of Eisenstein series and incomplete theta series through the limit set. Furthermore, we derive explicit formulas for the residues of the extension operator in terms of boundary values of automorphic eigenfunctions.</p><p>The motivation for the second paper comes from conformal geometry in Lorentzian signature. We prove the existence and uniqueness of a sequence of differential intertwining operators for spherical principal series representations, which are realized on boundaries of anti de Sitter spaces. Algebraically, these operators correspond to homomorphisms of generalized Verma modules. We relate these families to the asymptotics of eigenfunctions on anti de Sitter spaces.</p>

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Aujourd’hui, on parle du Web social. Facebook par exemple, porte bien la marque de son époque ; il est devenu le réseau social le plus convoité dans le monde. Toutefois, l’entreprise a été souvent critiquée en raison de sa politique qui porte atteinte à la vie privée des personnes. Par le truchement de ses modules sociaux, Facebook a le potentiel de collecter et d’utiliser des informations considérables sur les internautes à leur insu et sans leur consentement. Ce fait est malheureusement méconnu de la majorité d’entre eux. Certes, l’entreprise doit vivre économiquement et l’exploitation des renseignements personnels constitue pour elle une source de revenu. Toutefois, cette quête de subsistance ne doit pas se faire au détriment de la vie privée des gens. En dépit des outils juridiques dont le Canada dispose en matière de protection de la vie privée, des entreprises du Web à l’image de Facebook réussissent à les contourner. / Today we talk about the social Web. Facebook for example bears the mark of its time, as it becomes the most coveted social networking Web site in the world. However, the company has been criticized due to its policy that violates people's privacy. Through its social plugins, Facebook has the potential to collect considerable amounts of information about users without their knowledge and without their consent, a fact which is unknown to most of them. Certainly, the company must ensure its economic stability through these activities. However, this quest for subsistence should not be to the detriment of people's privacy. Canada has legal tools for the protection of privacy that allow users to deal with this kind of threat. However, Web companies such Facebook succeed to circumvent the law.

Ce mémoire porte sur l'étude des surfaces minimales et de courbure moyenne constante dans les espaces homogènes de dimension 3. Nous établissons les formules de Sym-Bobenko pour les surfaces de courbure moyenne constante 1/2 de H^2xR et minimales du groupe de Heisenberg, et donnons des exemples de construction de telles immersions par la méthode DPW. Nous montrons également que des propriétés de symétrie passent aux correspondances de type surfaces sœurs et cousines, ce qui entraîne l'existence de graphes entiers de courbure moyenne constante 1/2 à bout vertical dans H^2xR qui ne sont pas de révolution. Nous reprenons ensuite l'étude des bouts verticaux d'immersions de courbure moyenne constante 1/2 dans H^2xR. Nous munissons une famille de graphes entiers d'une structure de variété lisse et en déduisons un analogue pour H^2xR d'un théorème de A. E. Treibergs pour l'espace de Minkowski. Nous nous intéressons également aux déformations des anneaux de révolution. Une conséquence directe est l'existence d'anneaux immergés qui ne sont pas de révolution. Nous construisons notamment des anneaux dont les bouts n'ont pas le même axe. Enfin, nous décrivons les invariants de Nœther correspondant aux isométries des espaces homogènes pour les surfaces minimales et de courbure moyenne constante. Nous utilisons le formalisme de la géométrie de contact qui permet l'écriture de formules explicites en toute généralité, et nous étudions l'évolution des formes de Nœther sous l'action des isométries des espaces homogènes. Nous calculons ces invariants dans le cas des anneaux déformés de H^2xR, et dans celui des anneaux horizontaux du groupe de Heisenberg / The present dissertation deals with the study of minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces in 3-dimensional homogeneous spaces. In a first part, we establish Sym-Bobenko formulæ for constant mean curvature 1/2 surfaces in H^2xR and minimal surfaces in the Heisenberg group, and give examples of construction of such immersions using the DPW method. We also show that certain symmetry properties are shared by sister or cousin surfaces, which implies the existence non rotational entire graphs of constant mean curvature 1/2 in H^2xR with a vertical end.In a second part, we treat in more details the study of vertical ends of constant mean curvature 1/2 immersions in H^2xR. We endow a particular family entire graphs with a structure of smooth manifold and deduce an analogue in H^2xR to a theorem by A. E. Treibergs in the Minkowski space. We are also interested in deforming rotational annuli. A direct consequence is the existence of immersed non rotational annuli, and in particular we construct annuli with ends that do not have the same axis. Finally, we describe the Nœther invariants corresponding to isometries of the ambient homogeneous space for minimal and constant mean curvature surfaces. To do so, we use the formalism of contact geometry which allows general and explicit formulæ. We then study the evolution of Nœther form under the action of isometries in homogeneous spaces. We compute these invariants in the case of deformed annuli in H^2xR, and in the case of horizontal annuli in Heisenberg group

A concepção arquitetônica dos templos dóricos gregos é estudada na perspectiva da Arqueologia da Arquitetura stricto sensu. Verificamos a relevância e o papel que teve a aplicação da geometria e da aritmética como recursos técnicos e metodológicos para o desenvolvimento do projeto do templo dórico grego no século V a.C., visando esclarecer e estabelecer vínculos entre tais ramos da matemática e a lógica subjacente que norteou os arquitetos, tanto em projeto como nas aplicações precisas em obra. Para isso, abordarmos os fundamentos científicos da arquitetura grega a partir da análise de 10 templos clássicos hexastilos (configuração canônica da ordem dórica) fazendo um balanço crítico sobre o alcance e o limite das teorias modernas que desenvolveram modelos de interpretação para o projeto do templo dórico grego. Adotamos como ponto de partida, e referência fundamental, os artigos publicados por J. J. Coulton em meados da década de setenta, no periódico The Annual of the British School at Athens, e vamos sistemáticamente atualizando o debate apoiado nas discussões mais recentes. / The Architectural conception of the Greek Doricos temples has been studied in the perspective of the Archaeology of the Architecture stricto sensu. We had verified the role and the relevance that the geometry and arithmetic applications such as the technical and methodology resources for the design development of the Greek Doric temple in V century B.C., in order to clarify and to establish links between mathematics branches and the underlying logic that had been guiding the architects, as much in projects as in the accuracy applications for the building constructions. In a way to approach the Greek architecture scientific fundamentals from the analysis of 10 hexastilos classic temples (canonic configuration of the Doric order) making a critical balance on the limit and the reach of the modern theories that had developed interpretation models for the design of the Greek Doric temple. We adopt as basic reference and starting point, the articles published for J.J. Coulton in middle of the seventy decade, in the periodic The Annual of the British School at Athens, and systematically go bringing up to date the debate supported in the most recent discussions.

The study about bi-Lipschitz equisingularity has been a very important subject in Singularity Theory in last decades. Many different approach have cooperated for a better understanding about. One can see that the bi-Lipschitz geometry is able to detect large local changes in curvature more accurately than other kinds of equisingularity. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the bi-Lipschitz geometry in an algebraic viewpoint. We define some algebraic tools developing classical properties. From these tools, we obtain algebraic criterions for the bi-Lipschitz equisingularity of some families of analytic varieties. We present a categorical and homological viewpoints of these algebraic structure developed before. Finally, we approach algebraically the bi-Lipschitz equisingularity of a family of Essentially Isolated Determinantal Singularities. / O estudo da equisingularidade bi-Lipschitz tem sido amplamente investigado nas últimas décadas. Diversas abordagens têm contribuído para uma melhor compreensão a respeito. Observa-se que a geometria bi-Lipschitz é capaz de detectar grandes alterações locais de curvatura com maior precisão quando comparada a outros padrões de equisingularidade. O objetivo desta tese é investigar a geometria bi-Lipschitz do ponto de vista algébrico. Definimos algumas estruturas algébricas desenvolvendo algumas propriedades clássicas. A partir de tais estruturas obtemos critérios algébricos para a equisingularidade bi-Lipschitz de algumas classes de famílias de variedades analíticas. Apresentamos uma visão categórica e homológica dos elementos desenvol- vidos. Finalmente abordamos algebricamente a equisingularidade de famílias de Singularidades Determinantais Essencialmente Isoladas.

Os atuais avanços na área das Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (TIC) estão mudando a Educação, com a disponibilização de sistemas educativos para apoiar as atividades no processo de ensino e de aprendizagem. Embora o tópico de combinatória seja relevante para o ensino médio e para os cursos de Ciências Exatas, este tópico tem sido desconsiderado nos avanços da Informática na Educação, principalmente ao se considerar o uso de ambientes de aprendizagem via Web. Atualmente, o iComb é, no melhor de nosso conhecimento, o único sistema Web integrável a tais ambientes. Ele é um Módulo de Aprendizagem Interativa (iMA) integrável ao Sistema Gerenciador de Cursos (SGC) Moodle, por meio do plugin iTarefa. O iComb oferece atividades de autoria de exercícios, bem como, sua avaliação automática. No entanto, considerando sua usabilidade, foram detectados alguns problemas na interface. O foco deste trabalho está relacionado ao reprojeto do sistema iComb e seu impacto na aprendizagem de combinatória. Para a reconstrução do iComb adotou-se o método de design de interação, buscando-se a participação efetiva de usuários finais do sistema, em todas as atividades desse processo, com (i) sessões de teste de usabilidade utilizando a versão Java do iComb para identificar problemas e guiar o redesenho do sistema, e (ii) prototipagem e avaliação da interface do sistema redesenhado. Esse processo permitiu implementar uma nova versão do iComb utilizando tecnologias associadas ao HTML5, que será brevemente disponibilizado como software livre. / Current advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are changing Education with delivering software to support learning/teaching activities. Although being relevant for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses, Combinatorial Analysis is almost disregarded in these advances, mostly if we consider their integration with earning Management Systems. Currently, iComb is, at the best of our knowledge, the only system with such a possibility. It is an interactive Learning Module (iLM) that can be integrated to Moodle, through the iAssign plugin. iComb provides authoring activities as well as their automatic assessment. Nevertheless, considering the system usability, several interaction problems were detected during sessions with teachers and students. In this work it is described the process of redesigning the iComb system by adopting Interactive Design, to conduct controlled sessions of system use for (i) identifying usability issues for guiding the system redesign; and (ii) prototyping and evaluate the redesigned system interface, with end-users. This process allowed to implement new version of iComb using HTML5 related technologies that will be sooner available as free software, in order to reach a larger audience. Preliminary results on the interface evaluation indicate that both students and teachers felt more comfortable using the new interface of iComb and found it easier to execute common tasks.

Fatores de transcrição (FT) são proteínas que se ligam em sequências específicas e bem conservadas de nucleotídeos no DNA, denominadas sítios de ligação dos fatores de transcrição (SLFT), localizadas em regiões de regulação gênica conhecidas como módulos cis-reguladores (CRM). Ao reconhecer o SLFT, o fator de transcrição se liga naquele sítio e influencia a transcrição gênica positiva ou negativamente. Existem técnicas experimentais para a identificação dos locais dos SLFTs em um genoma, como footprinting, ChIP-chip ou ChIP-seq. Entretanto, a execução de tais técnicas implica em custos e tempo elevados. Alternativamente, pode-se utilizar as sequências de SLFTs já conhecidas para um determinado fator de transcrição e aplicar técnicas de aprendizado computacional supervisionado para criar um modelo computacional para tal sítio e então realizar a predição computacional no genoma. Entretanto, a maioria das ferramentas computacionais existentes para esse fim considera independência entre as posições entre os nucleotídeos de um sítio - como as baseadas em PWMs (position weight matrix) - o que não é necessariamente verdade. Este projeto teve como objetivo avaliar a utilização de gramáticas regulares estocásticas (GRE) como técnica alternativa às PWMs neste problema, uma vez que GREs são capazes de caracterizar dependências entre posições consecutivas dos sítios. Embora as diferenças de desempenho tenham sido sutis, GREs parecem mesmo ser mais adequadas do que PWMs na presença de valores mais altos de dependência de bases, e PWMs nos demais casos. Por fim, uma ferramenta de predição computacional de SLFTs foi criada baseada tanto em GREs quanto em PWMs. / Transcription factors (FT) are proteins that bind to specific and well-conserved sequences of nucleotides in the DNA, called transcription factor binding sites (TFBS), contained in regions of gene regulation known as cis-regulatory modules (CRM). By recognizing TFBA, the transcription factor binds to that site and positively or negatively influence the gene transcription. There are experimental procedures for the identification of TFBS in a genome such as footprinting, ChIP-chip or ChIP-Seq. However, the implementation of these techniques involves high costs and time. Alternatively, one may utilize the TFBS sequences already known for a particular transcription factor and applying computational supervised learning techniques to create a computational model for that site and then perform the computational prediction in the genome. However, most existing software tools for this purpose considers independence between nucleotide positions in the site - such as those based on PWMs (position weight matrix) - which is not necessarily true. This project aimed to evaluate the use of stochastic regular grammars (SRG) as an alternative technique to PWMs in this problem, since SRGs are able to characterize dependencies between consecutive positions in the sites. Although differences in performance have been subtle, SRGs appear to be more suitable than PWMs in the presence of higher base dependency values, and PWMs in other cases. Finally, a computational TFBS prediction tool was created based on both SRGs and PWMs.