An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the performance of pilot scale constructed wetlands for the treatment of domestic wastewater in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Three parallel sets of constructed wetlands; consisting of one Horizontal Flow (HF), one Vertical Flow (VF) and one hybrid of HF and VFconstructed in series were built in Addis Ababa. The wetland systems had identical wetland fill media and macrophytes but with different wastewater flow types. The total surface area of the wetland systems was 72 m2 /24 m2 for each/ and designed to treat 3.15 m3 of domestic wastewater per day. Triplicate grab samples were taken from the influent and effluents every 15 days for one year and analyzed within 24 hours. Temperature, pH, DO and EC were measured onsite and the nutrient content of macrophytes was determined twice during the monitoring period. During the first 12 months monitoring period, the average removal efficiencies of the HFCW, VFCW and hybrid CW were: BOD (89.1%, 92.2% and 93.4%), COD (80.6%, 82.1% and 84.0%), TSS (89.1, 83.8% and 84.7%), NH4 + (58.6%, 66.2% and 65.4%), NO3 - (64.0%, 71.5% and 73.5%), TN (49.1%, 54.9% and 58.7%), PO4 3- (45.4%, 50.3% and 48.4%), TP (58.0%, 51.7% and 54.4%) and FC (98.6%, 96.6% and 96.5%), respectively. The hybrid system showed relatively higher removal efficiencies for most pollutants. Again, the wetland systems showed relatively higher percent reduction during the dry seasons /from Dec - May/. The areal removal rate constants of BOD5, TN, PO4 3- and TP were higher than the literature values while the values of COD and TSS were lower compared to the literature values. Concerning the nutrient content of the wetland plant, the average TN contents of the below-ground and above-ground plant part were 1.56% and 2.27% for the HFCW, 1.75% and 2.74% for the VFCW and 1.80% and 2.63% for the hybrid system, respectively. Meanwhile, the average TP contents of the belowground and above-ground plant part were 0.139% and 0.064% for the HFCW, 0.167% and 0.067% for the VFCW and 0.115% and 0.065% for the hybrid systems, respectively. In general, the results showed that properly designed constructed wetland systems could be used as effective wastewater treatment method in Ethiopia. / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Sciences)

Die landwirtschaftliche Landnutzung dominiert ein Drittel der Erdoberfläche und ist der größte Einflussfaktor des Biodiversitätsverlustes. Zudem wird prognostiziert, dass sich mit wachsender Erdbevölkerung und zunehmendem Bedarf an Ressourcen der Einfluss der landwirtschaftlichen Landnutzung auf die Biodiversität massiv ausweiten wird. Das Hauptziel dieser Dissertation war es, ein tieferes Verständnis über die Beziehung zwischen landwirtschaftlicher Landnutzung und Biodiversität auf globaler Skala zu entwickeln. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen möchte diese Dissertation eine Brücke über drei Forschungslücken schlagen. Erstens, während sich bereits viele Studien mit der Auswirkung der landwirtschaftlichen Expansion auf die Biodiversität beschäftigt haben, untersuchten relativ wenige Arbeiten die Beziehung zwischen den vielen Facetten der landwirtschaftlichen Intensivierung und der Biodiversität. Zweitens, die meisten Studien hinsichtlich Landnutzung und Biodiversität haben die Auswirkungen auf lokaler bis regionaler Skala analysiert, wohingegen nur wenige diese Beziehung auf globaler Skala untersucht haben. Diese Lücke ist besonders kritisch in Bezug auf die Vorhersage des Artenreichtums – wobei traditionellerweise eher Umweltfaktoren als durch den Menschen bedingte Faktoren als wichtig für das Bedingen und Vorhersagen von großflächigen Mustern der Biodiversität angesehen werden. Drittens, angesichts des zunehmenden zukünftigen Bedarfes an Ressourcen ist ein besseres Verständnis bezüglich der Auswirkung der zukünftigen landwirtschaftlichen Landnutzung auf die Biodiversität nötig. Diese Dissertation erzielte Fortschritte darin Brücken über diese Forschungslücken zu schlagen durch (i) das Kartieren von Mustern vielfacher Metriken der Landnutzungsintensität und Biodiversität, (ii) das Verbessern der Arten-Areal-Beziehung durch die Einbindung von Landbedeckung und Landnutzungsintensitätsmetriken sowie (iii) das Identifizieren von Gebieten mit großer biologischer Vielfalt, die gefährdet sind hinsichtlich der Trajektorien potentieller zukünftiger Landnutzungsexpansion und –intensivierung. Die Muster der Landnutzungs-intensitätsmetriken waren heterogen verteilt in Gebieten mit hoher Biodiversität, was darauf hinweist, dass die Umweltschutzforschung vielfache Intensitätsmetriken einbeziehen sollte um zu verhindern, dass die Bedrohung für die Biodiversität unterschätzt wird. Weitere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in der Vorhersage des globalen Artenreichtums die Landnutzungsintensität den Biomen in nichts nachsteht, wodurch eines der fundamentalsten Gesetze in der Ökologie erweitert wird und ein verbessertes Verständnis der großflächigen Muster im Artenreichtum erzielt wird. Die am stärksten gefährdeten Gebiete bezüglich des potentiellen zukünftigen landwirtschaftlichen Wandels wurden schließlich weitverbreitet in Lateinamerika und im subsaharischen Afrika gefunden. Dieses Ergebnis bot wichtige Erkenntnisse zur proaktiven Entschärfung von zukünftigen potentiellen Konflikten in der Beziehung zwischen Biodiversität und Landnutzung. In Anbetracht der großen Bedrohung, die die Landwirtschaft für die Biodiversität darstellt, hob diese Dissertation insgesamt die Komplexität und Bedeutung der Landnutzungsintensität in ihrer Beziehung zur Biodiversität hervor und identifizierte Gebiete mit hoher Biodiversität, welche bedroht sind von landwirtschaftlicher Landnutzung, sowohl in der Gegenwart als auch zukünftig. / Agricultural land use dominates one third of the Earth’s land surface and is the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss. Moreover, with a growing human population and a rising demand for resources, the impact of agricultural land use on biodiversity is projected to escalate. The main goal of this thesis was to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between agricultural land use and biodiversity on a global scale. In approaching this goal, this thesis aims to bridge three main research gaps. First, while much research has addressed the effect of agricultural expansion on biodiversity, relatively little work has investigated the relationship between the many facets of agricultural intensification and biodiversity. Second, most studies on land use and biodiversity have assessed local to regional scale impacts, whereas few have assessed this relationship on a global scale. This gap is particularly critical in terms of predicting species richness – where environmental factors rather than human driven factors have traditionally been thought to be important in driving and predicting broad-scale patterns of biodiversity. Third, in light of growing future demand for resources, a better understanding is needed regarding the impact of future agricultural land use on biodiversity. This thesis made progress in bridging these research gaps by (i) mapping patterns of multiple metrics of land-use intensity and biodiversity, (ii) improving species-area relationships with the inclusion of land cover and land-use intensity metrics, and (iii) identifying highly biodiverse areas at risk under trajectories of potential future agricultural expansion and intensification. Patterns of land-use intensity metrics were heterogeneously distributed in areas of high biodiversity, suggesting that conservation research should include multiple intensity metrics in order to avoid underestimating biodiversity threat. Further results show land-use intensity was found to rival biomes in predicting global species richness, thus upgrading one of the most fundamental laws in ecology, and providing an improved understanding of broad-scale species richness patterns. Finally, areas most at-risk under potential future agricultural change were found to be widespread across Latin America and Sub-Saharan America. This delivered crucial insights in proactively mitigating future potential conflicts in the nexus of biodiversity and land use. Overall, considering the great threat agriculture poses to biodiversity, this thesis highlighted the complexity and importance of land-use intensity in its relationship with biodiversity and uncovered highly biodiverse areas threatened by agricultural land use, both currently and in the future.

在二十世紀九十年代，學者提出地理加權迴歸（Geographically Weighted Regression;簡稱GWR)。GWR是一個企圖解決空間非穩定性的方法。此方法最大的特性，是模型中的迴歸係數可以依空間的不同而改變，這也意味著不同的地理位置可以有不同的迴歸係數。在係數的估計上，每個觀察值都擁有一個固定環寬，而估計值可以由環寬範圍內的觀察值取得。然而，若變數之間的特性不同，固定環寬的設定可能會產生不可靠的估計值。 為了解決這個問題，本文章提出CGWR(Conditional-based GWR)的方法嘗試修正估計值，允許各迴歸變數有不同的環寬。在估計的程序中，CGWR運用疊代法與交叉驗證法得出最終的估計值。本文驗證了CGWR的收斂性，也同時透過電腦模擬比較GWR, CGWR與local linear法(Wang and Mei, 2008)的表現。研究發現，當迴歸係數之間存有正相關時，CGWR比其他兩個方法來的優異。最後，本文使用CGWR分析台灣高齡老人失能資料，驗證CGWR的效果。 / Geographically weighted regression (GWR), first proposed in the 1990s, is a modelling technique used to deal with spatial non-stationarity. The main characteristic of GWR is that it allows regression coefficients to vary across space, and so the values of the parameters can vary depending on locations. The parameters for each location can be estimated by observations within a fixed range (or bandwidth). However, if the parameters differ considerably, the fixed bandwidth may produce unreliable or even unstable estimates. To deal with the estimation of greatly varying parameter values, we propose Conditional-based GWR (CGWR), where a different bandwidth is selected for each independent variable. The bandwidths for the independent variables are derived via an iteration algorithm using cross-validation. In addition to showing the convergence of the algorithm, we also use computer simulation to compare the proposed method with the basic GWR and a local linear method (Wang and Mei, 2008). We found that the CGWR outperforms the other two methods if the parameters are positively correlated. In addition, we use elderly disability data from Taiwan to demonstrate the proposed method.

From the Proceedings of the 1978 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Assn. and the Hydrology Section - Arizona Academy of Science - April 14-15, 1978, Flagstaff, Arizona / Assessment of the basic hydrologic and geologic parameters controlling the occurrence and availability of local groundwater is one of the first steps in formulating any comprehensive water management plan. Each of several parameters must be carefully evaluated both individually and in relation to the other factors which together describe the occurrence and movement of the subsurface water resources. These evaluations are fundamental to the legal and political decision- making framework within which the Water Utility must operate for both short and long-range water management planning. Recent changes in several hydrologic parameters have been observed throughout much of the groundwater reservoir tapped by numerous users in the Tucson Basin. Accelerated water level decline rates, decreasing production capacities of existing wells, increased hydrologic interference and increased demand for water are all having an impact on our water resource. These conditions must be evaluated before basin -wide groundwater management alternatives can be implemented.

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Abstract The central goal of this study was to study how contrastive accent is realised phonetically in three regional varieties of Standard Spoken Finnish. Speakers from the Oulu, Turku and Tampere regions produced unaccented and contrastively accented versions of the target words. Fundamental frequencies and segment durations were measured in all the target words, and in the contrastively accented versions also the temporal distance of the F0 peak from word onset. In the unaccented words, F0 fluctuations were very small, indicating once more that in Finnish, too, mere word stress is not realised tonally. In the words with CV.CV(X) structure, the lengthening of segment durations due to stress was restricted to the initial syllable in Tampere, whereas in Oulu and Turku the lengthening extended to the second syllable. The width of the fall-rise F0 pattern realising contrastive accent was in all word structures widest in the Oulu variety, and the narrowest in the Tampere variety. In the Turku variety CV.CV(X) words, the F0 peak occurred further away from word onset than in any other words investigated. The differences in segment durations among the varieties were similar in the unaccented words and in the contrastively accented ones, with one exception: the duration of V1 in the unaccented CV.CV(X) words was the same across the varieties, but in the contrastively accented CV.CV(X) words the duration of V1 was shorter in the Turku variety than in the other varieties. The durational ratio of V1 and V2 in the Turku variety – as in the Oulu variety – was different from the durational ratio in the Tampere variety: in Turku and Oulu V2 had a longer duration than V1, whereas in Tampere V1 had a longer duration than V2. This confirms earlier observations that Turku and Oulu belong to regions in which the V2 of CV.CV(X) words is half-long (longer than V1), but Tampere does not. However, the present study shows that the relative half-long duration of the V2 of CV.CV(X) words is achieved differently in Turku and Oulu: in Turku through the short duration of V1, but in Oulu through the long duration of V2. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen keskeisin tavoite oli selvittää, miten kontrastiivinen aksentti toteutuu foneettisesti kolmelta eri suomen murrealueelta kotoisin olevien yleiskielisessä puheessa. Oulun, Turun ja Tampereen seuduilta kotoisin olevat koehenkilöt tuottivat tutkimuksen jokaisesta kohdesanasta sekä aksentoimattoman että kontrastiivisesti aksentoidun esiintymän. Tuotetuista kohdesanoista mitattiin perustaajuuksia, äännesegmenttien kestot sekä kontrastiivisesti aksentoituiduista sanoista F0:n huipun etäisyys sanan alusta. Aksentoimattomissa sanoissa F0:n muutokset olivat kaikissa tutkituissa suomen varieteeteissa erittäin vähäisiä, mikä taas kerran todisti, ettei suomessakaan pelkkä sanapaino toteudu tonaalisesti. Sanapainon toteutumisessa kestojen avulla oli varieteettien välisiä eroja CV.CV(X)-rakenteisissa sanoissa: Tampereen varieteetissa sanapainon toteutumisala rajoittui ensimmäiseen tavuun, mutta Turun ja Oulun varieteeteissa se ulottui myös toiseen tavuun. Kontrastiivista aksenttia toteuttavan F0:n nousu–lasku-kuvion laajuus oli kaiken rakenteisissa kohdesanoissa suurin Oulun varieteetissa, pienempi Turun varieteetissa ja kaikkein pienin Tampereen varieteetissa. Muutoin kontrastiivisen aksentin toteutumisessa F0:n avulla oli huomattavia varieteettien välisiä eroja vain CV.CV(X)-rakenteisissa sanoissa: Turun varieteetin CV.CV(X)-sanoissa F0:n huippukohta sijaitsi kauempana sanan alusta kuin kaikissa muissa tutkituissa sanoissa, eli kauempana kuin muun rakenteisissa Turun varieteetin sanoissa ja kaiken rakenteisissa Oulun ja Tampereen varieteettien sanoissa. Varieteettien väliset segmenttien kestoerot olivat samat aksentoimattomissa ja kontrastiivisesti aksentoiduissa sanoissa, lukuun ottamatta sitä, että CV.CV(X)-rakenteisten sanojen V1:n kestossa ei aksentoimattomissa sanoissa ollut varieteettien välisiä eroja, mutta kontrastiivisesti aksentoiduissa sanoissa kyseisen segmentin kesto oli lyhempi Turun varieteetissa kuin muissa varieteeteissa. Tällä tavoin Turun varieteetin kontrastiivisesti aksentoiduissa CV.CV(X)-sanoissa toteutui V1:n ja V2:n kestosuhde, joka – samoin kuin Oulun varieteetin vastaava kestosuhde – poikkeaa Tampereen varieteetin vastaavasta kestosuhteesta: Turussa ja Oulussa V2 on V1:tä pitempikestoinen, Tampereella päinvastoin V1:n kesto on V2:n kestoa suurempi. Tämä vahvistaa ne aiempien tutkimusten tulokset, että Turku ja Oulu ovat ns. puolipidennysmurteiden aluetta, mutta Tampere ei. Kuitenkin tämä tutkimus osoitti, että kontrastiivisesti aksentoitujen sanojen puolipidennys saadaan Turun varieteetissa aikaan pikemminkin lyhytkestoisen V1:n kuin pitkäkestoisen V2:n avulla, kun taas Oulun varieteetissa puolipidennys syntyy nimenomaan pitkäkestoisen V2:n avulla. Kaiken kaikkiaan suurin osa tutkimuksessa todetuista varieteettien välisistä selvistä perustaajuus- ja kestoeroista koski CV.CV(X)-rakenteisia sanoja, jotka ovatkin erikoinen suomen sanatyyppi yksimoraisen ensi tavunsa vuoksi.

A prototype 3-dimensional (3D) anode, based on multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), for Li-ion batteries (LIBs), with potential use in Electric Vehicles (EVs) was investigated. The unique 3D design of the anode allowed much higher areal mass density of MWCNTs as active materials, resulting in more amount of Li+ ion intake, compared to that of a conventional 2D counterpart. Furthermore, 3D amorphous Si/MWCNTs hybrid structure offered enhancement in electrochemical response (specific capacity 549 mAhg-1). Also, an anode stack was fabricated to further increase the areal or volumetric mass density of MWCNTs. An areal mass density of the anode stack 34.9 mg/cm2 was attained, which is 1,342% higher than the value for a single layer 2.6 mg/cm2. Furthermore, the binder-assisted and hot-pressed anode stack yielded the average reversible, stable gravimetric and volumetric specific capacities of 213 mAhg-1 and 265 mAh/cm3, respectively (at 0.5C). Moreover, a large-scale patterned novel flexible 3D MWCNTs-graphene-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) anode structure was prepared. It generated a reversible specific capacity of 153 mAhg-1 at 0.17C and cycling stability of 130 mAhg-1 up to 50 cycles at 1.7C.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is on the verge of causing a downfall to conventional manufacturing with its huge potential in part manufacture. With an increase in demand for customized product, on-demand production and sustainable manufacturing, AM is gaining a great deal of attention from different industries in recent years. AM is redefining product design by revolutionizing how products are made. AM is extensively utilized in automotive, aerospace, medical and dental applications for its ability to produce intricate and lightweight structures. Despite their popularity, AM has not fully replaced traditional methods with one of the many reasons being inferior surface quality. Surface texture plays a crucial role in the functionality of a component and can cause serious problems to the manufactured parts if left untreated. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the surface behavior concerning the factors affecting it to establish control over the surface quality. The challenge with AM is that it generates surfaces that are different compared to conventional manufacturing techniques and varies with respect to different materials, geometries and process parameters. Therefore, AM surfaces often require novel characterization approaches to fully explain the manufacturing process. Most of the previously published work has been broadly based on two-dimensional parametric measurements. Some researchers have already addressed the AM surfaces with areal surface texture parameters but mostly used average parameters for characterization which is still distant from a full surface and functional interpretation. There has been a continual effort in improving the characterization of AM surfaces using different methods and one such effort is presented in this thesis. The primary focus of this thesis is to get a better understanding of AM surfaces to facilitate process control and optimization. For this purpose, the surface texture of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and Laser-based Powder Bed Fusion of Metals (PBF-LB/M) have been characterized using various tools such as Power Spectral Density (PSD), Scale-sensitive fractal analysis based on area-scale relations, feature-based characterization and quantitative characterization by both profile and areal surface texture parameters. A methodology was developed using a Linear multiple regression and a combination of the above-mentioned characterization techniques to identify the most significant parameters for discriminating different surfaces and also to understand the manufacturing process. The results suggest that the developed approaches can be used as a guideline for AM users who are looking to optimize the process for gaining better surface quality and component functionality, as it works effectively in finding the significant parameters representing the unique signatures of the manufacturing process. Future work involves improving the accuracy of the results by implementing improved statistical models and testing other characterization methods to enhance the quality and function of the parts produced by the AM process.

A specialized project of „Architectural study of modification of the bicycle stadium Favorit Brno in the BVV area and urban design of the Hněvkovský sports complex in Komárov“ preceded the diploma thesis. The aim of the project was preparation of the area for cycling stadium with all the necessary facilities and functional connections. The diploma thesis develops a previous project and elaborates the compound of the cycling stadium in a form of a study. The building should recpect to the current demands of this sport, such as a closed roof of the building, siberian pine track material and a 250-meter track length. The building will be situated in the area adjacent to the current biker complex in Brno Komárov.

The aim of the diploma thesis is the architectural design of the stadium for track cycling. It deals with a covered hall, which is located in the area of Komárov on the territory of the sports resort Hněvkovského. The urban design ofthe territory is elaborated simultaneously with the study of the hall. The resort offers a wide range of sport fields for recreational as well as top athletes, and the new velodrome hall should dominate the entire area. The buildingprovides background for the important cycling club TJ Favorit Brno. It also responds to the current requirements of track cycling and thus enables the organization of international races.