No description available.

No description available.

It is of paramount importance to our society that the environment, life style, science and amusement flourish together in a balanced way. Some trends in this direction are the increased utilization of renewable energy, like solar photovoltaics; better health care products, for example advanced biosensors; high definition TV or high resolution cameras; and novel scientific tools for better understanding of scientific observations. Advancement of micro and nanotechnologies has directly and positively impacted our stance in these application domains; one example is that of vertical periodic or aperiodic nano or micro pillar assemblies which have attracted significant research and industrial interest in recent years. In particular, Si pillars are very attractive due to the versatility of silicon. There are many potential applications of Si nanopillar/nanowire assemblies ranging from light emission, solar cells, antireflection, sensing and nonlinear optical effects. Compared to bulk, Si pillars or their assemblies have several unique properties, such as high surface to volume ratios, light localization, efficient light guiding, better light absorption, selective band of light propagation etc.      The focus of the thesis is on the fabrication of Si pillar assemblies and hierarchical ZnO nanowires on Si micro structures in top-down and bottom-up approaches and their optical properties and different applications. Here, we have investigated periodic and aperiodic Si nano and micro structure assemblies and their properties, such as light propagation, localization, and selective guiding and light-matter interaction. These properties are exploited in a few important optoelectronic/photonic applications, such as optical biosensors, broad-band anti-reflection, radial-junction solar cells, second harmonic generation and color filters.         We achieved a low average reflectivity of ~ 2.5 % with the periodic Si micropyramid-ZnO NWs hierarchical arrays. Tenfold enhancement in Raman intensity is also observed in these structures compared to planar Si. These Si microstructure-ZnO NW hierarchical structures can enhance the performance and versatility of photovoltaic devices and optical sensors. A convenient top-down fabrication of radial junction nanopillar solar cell using spin-on doping and rapid thermal annealing process is presented. Broad band suppressed reflection, on average 5%, in 300- 850 nm wavelength range and an un-optimized cell efficiency of 6.2 % are achieved. Our method can lead to a simple and low cost process for high efficiency radial junction nanopillar solar cell fabrication.            Silicon dioxide (SiO2) coated silicon nanopillar (NP) arrays are demonstrated for surface sensitive optical biosensing. Bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-BSA model system is used for biosensing trials by photo-spectrometry in reflection mode. Best sensitivity in terms of limit of detection of 5.2 ng/ml is determined for our nanopillar biosensor. These results are promising for surface sensitive biosensors and the technology allows integration in the CMOS platform.         Si pillar arrays used for surface second harmonic generation (SHG) experiments are shown to have a strong dependence of the SHG intensity on the pillar geometry. The surface SHG can be suitable for nonlinear silicon photonics, surface/interface studies and optical sensing.         Aperiodic Si nanopillar assemblies in PDMS matrix are demonstrated for efficient color filtering in transmission mode. These assemblies are designed using the ‘‘molecular dynamics-collision between hard sphere’’ algorithm. The designed structure is modeled in a 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation tool for optimization of color filtering properties. Transverse localization effect of light in our nanopillar color filter structures is investigated theoretically and the results are very promising to achieve image sensors with high pixel densities (~1 µm) and low crosstalk. The developed color filter is applicable as a stand-alone filter for visible color in its present form and can be adapted for displays, imaging, smart windows and aesthetic applications. / <p>QC 20160407</p>

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><em>Bachelor thesis in political science by Alexander Hassan, autumn 2008, “Effects of external factors on a nations democratisation process during the transition from authoritarian to electoral democratic rule – A categorical analysis”</em></p><p><em>Supervisor: Tomas Sedelius</em></p><p>In recent years globalization has become a hot topic in understanding the world we live in today. Globalization has indeed had a great impact on international relations and with it a great influence on the domestic conditions that determine a nation’s possibilities. It is therefore rational to hold true that this also would apply to a nation’s democratic process. This basic notion is what lies as a foundation for the thesis, where the purpose of the study is to examine the relatively new field of the international context and its significance on democratisation.</p><p>The aim of the study is to examine and determine, through a categorical analysis, the different forms and roles that the external factors can take during the process leading up to the transition and implementation of an electoral democracy, the most basic form of democracy.</p><p>The thesis thus has demanded the study and infusion of all discourses within the field of democratisation processes, as the only way to produce the roles and forms of the international contexts impact on the domestic process is through the study and determination of the different domestic spheres associated with the process.</p><p>The different forms of external influences have been studied within the confines of the third wave of democracy, and their roles in the democratic process determined depending on the respective domestic spheres they affect. The significant result of the studies where chiefly that all forms of external influence have the possibility to affect the democratisation process indirectly as well as directly. Where direct influence is exerted within the political sphere of the nation; where the actual transition takes place, and the indirect influence is exerted through the socio-economical and cultural sphere; which exerts its influence in the process through the political sphere. </p><p>The results thus show that it is hard to draw the conclusion that an indirect form of influence would be superior to the direct approach or vice versa, as both are prevalent in successful democratic transitions.</p>

La localisation d’un véhicule est une étape cruciale dans le développement des véhicules intelligents. Les recherches sur ce sujet ont connu un grand essor ces dernières années. L’accent est souvent porté sur la précision de la localisation, nous présentons ici une méthode de localisation sur carte existante dont l’objectif est d’estimer la position du robot non seulement de façon précise mais également de manière fiable. Pour ce faire, l’algorithme développé se présente en deux étapes principales : une étape de sélection et de perception des informations les plus pertinentes et une étape de mise à jour de la position estimée et de la fiabilité, cette dernière étape permet également de détecter et réparer ou éliminer les précédentes erreurs. La perception de l’environnement est réalisée à travers différents capteurs associés à des détecteurs spécifiques. L’humain utilise aussi différents capteurs pour se localiser et va intuitivement sélectionner le plus performant, s’il fait jour il utilisera ses yeux, sinon son oreille ou le toucher. Nous avons développé une approche similaire pour le robot qui tient compte des contraintes environnementales et de l’estimation actuelle pour sélectionner à chaque instant l’ensemble capteur, indice de la scène et détecteur le plus pertinent. La phase de perception, étant pilotée par un processus Top-Down, peut bénéficier d’informations déjà connues permettant ainsi de se focaliser sur l’indice recherché et d’améliorer les phases de détection et d’associations de données. Cette approche Top-Down s’appuie sur un réseau bayésien. Ce dernier permet de modéliser les interactions entre les différents événements qui se produisent en gérant l’incertitude. Il permet une prise en compte facile des différents événements. Par ailleurs le réseau bayésien présente une grande flexibilité pour l’ajout d’événements supplémentaires pouvant engendrer des non-détections (tels que dysfonctionnement de capteurs, conditions météorologiques, etc.). Les données de l’environnement sont rendues disponibles grâce à une carte géoréférencée préalablement fournie. Avec le développement de cartes disponibles facilement sur internet, cette façon de faire permet d’exploiter au mieux l’information déjà fournie. L’utilisation d’une carte géoréférencée permet d’avoir un référentiel commun entre tous les véhicules ou éléments de l’infrastructure facilitant ainsi l’échange d’informations et ouvrant du coup la possibilité d’interaction simplifiées dans le cas de flottes par exemple. Les résultats montrent que l’approche développée est pertinente pour une localisation précise et fiable aussi bien statique que dynamique. L’ajout de nouveaux capteurs se fait naturellement et sans nécessiter d’heuristique particulière. La localisation obtenue est suffisamment précise et fiable pour permettre des applications de conduite autonome utilisant, entre autres, cet algorithme. / Vehicle localization is a crucial step in the development of smart vehicles. The research in this domain has been growing in recent years. Generally, the effort is focused on the localization accuracy, we present here a localization method on existing map where the objective is to estimate the robot position not only with accuracy but also with confidence. To achieve this , the algorithm developed has two main steps : one, selection and perception of the most relevant informations and two, position estimation and confidence update. This last step also allows to detect and eliminate the previous errors. Environment perception is well achieved, thanks to different sensors associated with specific detectors. Humans use different senses, shifting automatically in order to localize themselves depending on the situation of the environment, for e.g if there is enough illumination we depend on eyes, else the ear or the touch otherwise. We have developed a similar approach for the robot that takes into account the specific environmental constraints and actual position estimation to select at each instant the most relevant set of sensor, landmark and detector. The perception step, led by a top-down process, can use already known informations allowing a focus on the searched landmark and an improvement of the detection and data associations steps. This top-down approach is well implemented, thanks to a Bayesian network. Bayesian network allows to model the interactions between the different probable events with management of the uncertainty. With this network, it is very easy to take into account those different events. Moreover, a Bayesian network has a great flexibility to take into consideration additional events that can cause false detections (like sensor failure, meteorological conditions and others). The environment data is obtained with a Georeferenced map (from GIS). With the already available maps on the internet, allows to exploit an already existing information. The use of a Georeferenced map facilitates the communication of informations between a vehicle and several other vehicles or with an element of the infrastructure, that can be very useful for multi vehicle coordination, for example. The results shows that the developed approach is very accurate and reliable for localization, whether static or dynamic, and can be applied for autonomous driving. Moreover, new sensors can be added at ease.

La perception est le moyen par lequel nous connaissons le monde extérieur. C’est grâce à nos perceptions que nous sommes capables d’interagir avec notre environnement et d’accomplir de nombreuses actions du quotidien comme se repérer, se déplacer, reconnaître des objets et autres. Cette perception n’est pas juste passive comme peut l’être une sensation, elle comporte des aspects actifs. En particulier, elle peut être orientée dans un but précis, permettant de filtrer les données pour ne traiter que les plus pertinentes. Si la perception humaine est particulièrement efficace, la perception artificielle, elle, demeure un problème complexe qui se heurte à de nombreuses difficultés. Ainsi, les changements de conditions de perception comme des modifications de l’illumination ou des occultations partielles de l’objet à percevoir doivent pouvoir être gérées efficacement. Pour résoudre ces difficultés, s’inspirer de la perception humaine semble être une piste intéressante. Ce manuscrit propose un système de perception polyvalent et générique reposant sur une stratégie de perception active. Pour ce faire, nous proposons un algorithme Top-Down utilisant un modèle en parties. Le problème de perception est transformé en un problème d’estimation d’un vecteur de caractéristiques. La détection des différentes parties permet de réaliser cette estimation. Le système de perception proposé est un algorithme itératif multi-capteurs. À chaque itération, il sélectionne au mieux, en fonction des objectifs fixés par l’application, la partie à détecter ainsi que les meilleurs capteur et détecteur compatibles. Un réseau bayésien est utilisé pour prendre en compte les événements incertains pouvant survenir lors de ce processus comme la défaillance d’un détecteur ou la non existence potentielle d’une partie donnée. Un processus de focalisation à la fois spatiale et de caractéristiques permet d’améliorer la détection en augmentant le rapport signal sur bruit, en restreignant la zone de recherche pour une partie et en éliminant certains des candidats trouvés. Ce processus de focalisation permet aussi de réduire les temps de calcul et de restreindre l’influence des distracteurs. L’ajout de nouveaux capteurs, détecteurs ou parties se fait simplement. De plus, l’utilisation d’un réseau bayésien permet une grande flexibilité au niveau de la modélisation des événements pris en compte : il est facile de rajouter de nouveaux événements pour obtenir une modélisation plus réaliste. L’algorithme proposé a été utilisé pour plusieurs applications incluant de la reconnaissance d’objets, de l’estimation fine de pose et de la localisation. / Perception is the way by which we know the outside world. Thanks to our perceptions we are able to interact with our environment and to achieve various everyday life actions as locating or moving in an environment, or recognizing objects. Perception is not passive whereas sensations are, it has active components. In particular, perception can be oriented for a specific purpose allowing to filter data and to take care only of the most relevant. If human perception is particularly effective, artificial perception remains a complex problem with a lot of non solved difficulties. For example, changes of perception conditions as modification of illumination or partial occultation of the searched object must be effectively managed. This thesis proposes a system of perception based on a strategy of active perception which can adapt itself to various applications. To do it, we propose an algorithm Top-Down using a part-based model. The problem of perception is transformed into a problem of estimation of a characteristics vector. The detection of the different parts constituting the searched object allows to realize this estimation. The proposed perceptive system is an iterative and multi-sensors algorithm. In every iteration, it selects, at best, according to the application objectives, the part to detect and the best compatible sensor and detector. A bayesian network is used to take into account uncertain events which can arise during this process as detector failure or potential non existing part. A focus process consisting of a spatial focus and of a characteristics focus, improves the detection by restricting the search area, by improving the signal to noise ratio and by eliminating some erroneous candidates. This focus process also allows to reduce computation time and to restrict influence of distractors. Adding a part, a sensor or a detector is simple. Furthermore, the use of a bayesian network allows to be flexible in the events modelisation : it is easy to add new events to obtain a more realistic modelisation. The proposed algorithm has been used for several applications including object’s recognition, fine pose estimation and localization. So, it is multi-purpose and generic.

When integrating sustainability, companies are often overlooking the changes needed in their organisational culture. This hinders organisations’ core business to efficiently embed sustainability and dooms corporate sustainability initiatives to be superficial. A possible solution is for organisations to develop a sustainability- oriented organisational culture that engages employees with the sustainability change and that develops a leadership supportive of the engagement of their employees. As a result, this thesis aims at exploring how organisations can change their organisational culture in order to fully integrate sustainability by engaging employees and managers. Specifically, it studies how employee engagement can contribute to transforming organizational cultures to fully embed sustainability. Additionally, this paper analyses how managers can support employee engagement with sustainability. The thesis conducts a literature review to set the theoretical foundations; it further resorts to semi-structured interviews and document analysis conducted in a Swedish public company, which has begun to integrate sustainability into its culture. The study finds that organisations’ cultures are being changed at the artifact levels and, partially, at the values and beliefs level of their cultures. Additionally, the thesis establishes that organisations are failing to create the conditions for employee engagement. It finally shows that leadership in companies is not efficiently supporting the engagement of employees to integrate sustainability into their culture.

No description available.

Abstract Bachelor thesis in political science by Alexander Hassan, autumn 2008, “Effects of external factors on a nations democratisation process during the transition from authoritarian to electoral democratic rule – A categorical analysis” Supervisor: Tomas Sedelius In recent years globalization has become a hot topic in understanding the world we live in today. Globalization has indeed had a great impact on international relations and with it a great influence on the domestic conditions that determine a nation’s possibilities. It is therefore rational to hold true that this also would apply to a nation’s democratic process. This basic notion is what lies as a foundation for the thesis, where the purpose of the study is to examine the relatively new field of the international context and its significance on democratisation. The aim of the study is to examine and determine, through a categorical analysis, the different forms and roles that the external factors can take during the process leading up to the transition and implementation of an electoral democracy, the most basic form of democracy. The thesis thus has demanded the study and infusion of all discourses within the field of democratisation processes, as the only way to produce the roles and forms of the international contexts impact on the domestic process is through the study and determination of the different domestic spheres associated with the process. The different forms of external influences have been studied within the confines of the third wave of democracy, and their roles in the democratic process determined depending on the respective domestic spheres they affect. The significant result of the studies where chiefly that all forms of external influence have the possibility to affect the democratisation process indirectly as well as directly. Where direct influence is exerted within the political sphere of the nation; where the actual transition takes place, and the indirect influence is exerted through the socio-economical and cultural sphere; which exerts its influence in the process through the political sphere.  The results thus show that it is hard to draw the conclusion that an indirect form of influence would be superior to the direct approach or vice versa, as both are prevalent in successful democratic transitions.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de découvrir si l’environnement institutionnel affecte la performance agricole dans le cas du Cambodge et comment le premier influe sur la dernière. Pour répondre à cet objectif, trois hypothèses sont formulées : (1) l’environnement institutionnel joue un rôle important dans la protection des droits de propriété foncière ; (2) les droits de propriété foncière sécurisés augmentent la productivité agricole par la stimulation des incitations d’investissement des agriculteurs ; (3) les droits de propriété foncière sécurisés accroissent la productivité agricole par la facilitation de l’accès au crédit formel. Méthodologiquement, la recherche est basée sur les différentes théories de la Nouvelle Economie Institutionnelle, qui expliquent que les institutions déterminent la structure des incitations des acteurs économiques dans une société. Spécifiquement, les institutions politiques déterminent les institutions économiques, c’est-à-dire les droits de propriété, qui à leur tour affectent la performance économique en général et la performance agricole en particulier. La recherche est également basée sur les données venant de diverses sources, telles que des agences gouvernementales, des instituts de recherche locaux, des organisations non-gouvernementales et des organisations internationales, qui sont susceptibles de servir de base pour des analyses empiriques. En outre, le cas de l’Afrique subsaharienne est également étudié à titre de comparaison. Le résultat de la thèse confirme fortement les deux premières hypothèses, mais peu la dernière. Le résultat indique que l’impact de l’environnement institutionnel sur la productivité agricole via la protection des droits de propriété foncière est lié au contexte particulier parce qu’il devrait être complété par un environnement économique favorable, tel que l’infrastructure physique et la technologie agricole améliorées et les institutions du marché développées. De plus, on apprend que les résultats désirés ne sont pas obtenus si les institutions formelles (c’est-à-dire, l’enregistrement formel des terres) sont imposées via l’approche top-down dans les régions où les institutions informelles existantes sont fortement encastrées. / The purpose of this dissertation is to find out if the institutional environment affects agricultural performance in the case of Cambodia and how the former exerts an influence on the latter. To respond to this purpose, three hypotheses are formulated: (1) the institutional environment plays an important role in protecting property rights in land; (2) secure property rights in land increase agricultural productivity through the stimulation of farmers’ investment incentives; (3) secure property rights in land raise agricultural productivity through the facilitation of access to formal credit. Methodologically, the research is based on different theories of New Institutional Economics, which explain that institutions determine the incentive structure of economic actors in society. Specifically, political institutions shape economic institutions, i.e. property rights, which in turn affect economic performance in general and agricultural performance in particular. The research is also based on the data from various sources, such as government agencies, local research institutes, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations, which can serve as a basis for empirical analyses. In addition, the case of Sub-Saharan Africa is also studied for comparison. The result of the dissertation confirms strongly the first two hypotheses but slightly the last one. The result indicates that the impact of institutional environment on agricultural productivity through the protection of property rights in land is context-specific because it should be complemented by a favorable economic environment, such as improved physical infrastructure and agricultural technology and developed market institutions. Furthermore, it is learned that, in developing countries, the desired outcomes will not be obtained if formal institutions (i.e., formal land registration) are imposed through a top-down approach in areas where the existing informal institutions are strongly embedded.