Machine learning models for visual recognition tasks such as image recognition is a common research area as of lately. However, not much research has been made when multiple features are to be extracted from the same input. This thesis researches if and how knowledge about one feature influences model performance of a model classifying another feature, as well as how the similarity and generality of the feature data distributions influences model performance. Incorporating augmentation inputs in the form of extra feature information in image models was found to yield different results depending on feature data distribution similarity and level of generality. Care must be taken when augmenting with features in order for the feature not to be completely redundant or to completely take over in the learning process. Selecting reasonable augmentation inputs might yield desired synergy effects which influences model performance to the better. / Maskininlärningsmodeller för uppgifter inom visuellt igenkännande så som bildigenkänning har på senaste tiden varit ett vanligt forskningsområde. Dock har inte mycket forskning fokuserats på att extrahera multipla särdrag från samma inmatning. Detta examensarbete syftar till att undersöka hur kunskap om ett särdrag influerar en modells prestanda som syftar till att klassificera ett annat särdrag, men även hur likhet och generalitet i särdragens datadistribution influerar modellprestanda. Integrering av förstärkande inmatning i form av extra särdragsinformation i bildklassificeringsmodeller visades ge olika resultat beroende på likhet och generalitet av distribution av särdragsdata. Hänsyn måste tas när förstärkande särdrag används för att de förstärkande särdragen inte ska bli helt redundanta eller helt ta över under träningsprocessen. Väljande av rimliga förstärkningssärdrag kan medföra önskade synergieffekter vilket påverkar modellprestandan till det bättre.

Human eyes, as the organs for sensing light and processing visual information, enable us to see the real world. Though invaluable, they give us no way to "edit" the received visual stream or to "switch" to a different channel. The invention of motion pictures and computer technologies in the last century enables us to add an extra layer of modifications between the real world and our eyes. There are two major approaches to modifications that we consider here, offline augmentation and online augmentation. The movie industry has pushed offline augmentation to an extreme level; audiences can experience visual surprises that they have never seen in their real lives, even though it may take a few months or years for the production of the special visual effects. On the other hand, online augmentation requires that modifications be performed in real time. This dissertation addresses problems in both offline and online augmentation. The first offline problem addressed here is the generation of plausible video sequences after removing relatively large objects from the original videos. In order to maintain temporal coherence among the frames, a motion layer segmentation method is applied. From this, a set of synthesized layers is generated by applying motion compensation and a region completion algorithm. Finally, a plausibly realistic new video, in which the selected object is removed, is rendered given the synthesized layers and the motion parameters. The second problem we address is to construct a blue screen key for video synthesis or blending for Mixed Reality (MR) applications. As a well researched area, blue screen keying extracts a range of colors, typically in the blue spectrum, from a captured video sequence to enable the compositing of multiple image sources. Under ideal conditions with uniform lighting and background color, a high quality key can be generated through commercial products, even in real time. However, A Mixed Realty application typically involves a head-mounted display (HMD) with poor camera quality. This in turn requires the keying algorithm to be robust in the presence of noise. We conduct a three stage keying algorithm to reduce the noise in the key output. First a standard blue screen keying algorithm is applied to the input to get a noisy key; second the image gradient information and the corresponding region are compared with the result in the first step to remove noise in the blue screen area; and finally a matting approach is applied on the boundary of the key to improve the key quality. Another offline problem we address in this dissertation is the acquisition of correct transformation between the different coordinate frames in a Mixed Reality (MR) application. Typically an MR system includes at least one tracking system. Therefore the 3D coordinate frames that need to be considered include the cameras, the tracker, the tracker system and a world. Accurately deriving the transformation between the head-mounted display camera and the affixed 6-DOF tracker is critical for mixed reality applications. This transformation brings the HMD cameras into the tracking coordinate frame, which in turn overlaps with a virtual coordinate frame to create a plausible mixed visual experience. We carry out a non-linear optimization method to recover the camera-tracker transformation with respect to the image reprojection error. For online applications, we address a problem to extend the luminance range in mixed reality environments. We achieve this by introducing Enhanced Dynamic Range Video, a technique based on differing brightness settings for each eye of a video see-through head mounted display (HMD). We first construct a Video-Driven Time-Stamped Ball Cloud (VDTSBC), which serves as a guideline and a means to store temporal color information for stereo image registration. With the assistance of the VDTSBC, we register each pair of stereo images, taking into account confounding issues of occlusion occurring within one eye but not the other. Finally, we apply luminance enhancement on the registered image pairs to generate an Enhanced Dynamic Range Video.

The objectives of this study were to: (1) quantify levels of genetic intermixing in remnant Illinois eastern woodrat populations augmented with Ozark woodrats, and (2) assess genetic health and population viability in remnant and reintroduced woodrat populations. This dissertation is arranged into 3 chapters. DNA extractions, microsatellite genotyping, and mtDNA haplotype sequencing were conducted for individuals from the western Shawnee National Forest (WSNF) (i.e., LaRue Pine Hills [LPH], Fountain Bluff, Horseshoe Bluff), eastern Arkansas (AR), southern Missouri (MO), and 5 locations in the eastern Shawnee National Forest (ESNF), Illinois. Genetic data provided a strong signal in STRUCTURE which confirmed MO, AR, and LPH were genetically distinct populations prior to the genetic augmentation at LPH. Following augmentation, eastern woodrats in ESNF and WSNF have experienced admixture with introduced populations, increased allelic richness, decreased inbreeding, and increased effective population size, while genetic swamping was not observed. Haplotypes from both introduced populations were observed after augmentation at LPH but neither were detected in adjacent remnant populations. Reintroduced populations in the ESNF are acting as a single population and descendants consist of primarily AR and MO individuals. Admixture was apparent in all ESNF populations and haplotypes from all source populations persisted. Effective population size was largest at Garden of the Gods but all 5 populations had similar allelic richness and heterozygosity. In the ESNF, migration is not supported between study populations and additional habitat management may be needed. Future population monitoring of the ESNF population should focus efforts in the 3 central populations which are likely source populations. Future eastern woodrat management efforts should focus on (1) connectivity between ESNF populations and (2) connectivity in the WSNF amongst remnant populations and between remnant and reintroduced populations in the central Shawnee National Forest. I recommend the establishment of migration corridors by decreasing canopy cover in the forested matrix and the establishment of artificial rock outcrops in the form of boulder piles along migration corridors. My study indicates that genetic augmentations can be a beneficial management action in isolated eastern woodrat populations having experienced loss in gene flow, while reintroductions can benefit woodrats in areas believed to have experienced local extirpation. I also recommend identifying genetic structure of source populations for genetic augmentations and reintroductions beforehand to confirm multiple source populations, genetic variation, and introduction of multiple alleles. As rodents often have short lifespans and individual reintroductions may fail to establish, genetic augmentations and reintroductions should include the relocation of multiple individuals over time via soft release.

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Det finns ett stort utbud av benersättningsmaterial att använda vid sinuslyft i samband med implantatbehandling. Autogent bentransplantat har länge varit ett populärt val trots nackdelar som t.ex. postoperativ smärta från donationsområdet och/eller eventuell sjukhusinläggning. Användning av substitut till autogent bentransplantat skulle kunna vara en lösning för att eliminera dessa problem. Vid utvärdering av implantatbehandling och tolkning av resultat används olika mätparametrar som t.ex. implantatöverlevnad och lyckandefrekvens. Studier visar att det finns många faktorer som kan ha påverkan på dessa parametrar varav val av benförbättrande material är en av dem.Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att redogöra för augmentation av sinus maxillaris med benersättande material vid sinuslyft med lateral fönsterteknik i samband med implantatbehandling. Syftet var även att kartlägga implantatöverlevnad och lyckandefrekvens vid användning av olika material. Frågeställningarna var följande; Vilket/vilka benersättningsmaterial vid sinuslyft med lateral fönsterteknik ger bäst resultat i samband med implantatbehandling? Kan autogent bentransplantat ersättas av icke-autogena substitut? För att söka svar användes befintlig litteratur på Malmö högskolas odontologiska bibliotek samt artiklar från den medicinska databasen PubMed.Resultatet visade att det råder delad mening gällande vilket benersättande material som är att föredra framför ett annat. Icke-autogena substitut visade sig vara ett bra materialval vid sinusaugmentation, dock påvisades ingen utmärkande skillnad vad gäller lyckandefrekvens eller implantatöverlevnad för de olika substituten. Konklusionen var att det fortfarande är oklart huruvida ett material är att föredra framför ett annat vad gäller implantats överlevnad och lyckandefrekvens. Det har heller inte bevisats att autogent bentransplantat med fördel kan ersättas av icke-autogena substitut.

Urban forests perform essential ecological functions, and their performance is dependent on soil quality, which is often degraded by human activity. Because earthworms play a key role in soil health, augmenting earthworm populations in urban soils may improve tree performance. However, we know very little about earthworm ecology in highly urbanized soils. The objectives of our study were: (1) to assess earthworm demographics across a range of urban land uses and (2) to evaluate earthworm augmentation techniques for rehabilitating disturbed soils and improving tree growth. 1. We conducted an observational study across three landuse types to assess earthworm abundance and diversity as well as associated soil properties. Earthworm abundance and biomass in were affected by land use type, disturbance time frame, and seasonality. Earthworm abundance and biomass were affected by a suite of complex soil and temporal variables, and soil temperature and moisture seemed to be the most influential properties. 2. We conducted an earthworm inoculation experiment on a compacted cut-fill field soil with a very low existing earthworm population. In 2008, three soil treatments (control, compost, and compost + earthworm) were applied to 2 m2 plots into which two common urban tree species with contrasting soil tolerances were planted (Acer rubrum and Cornus florida). We measured soil physical and chemical properties along with earthworm survival and soil respiration. Earthworm inoculation did not succeed in improving bulk density or increasing soil organic matter, yet it was successful in increasing soil CEC, Fe, and Mn relative to compost only effects. / Master of Science

Aux confluences historiques et conceptuelles de la modernité, de la technologie, et del’« humain », les textes de notre corpus négocient et interrogent de façon critique lespossibilités matérielles et symboliques de la prothèse, ses aspects phénoménologiques etspéculatifs : du côté subjectiviste et conceptualiste avec une philosophie de laconscience, avec Merleau-Ponty ; et de l’autre avec les épistémologues du corps ethistoriens de la connaissance Canguilhem et Foucault. Le trope prometteur de laprothèse impacte sur les formations discursives et non-discursives concernant lareconstruction des corps, là où la technologie devient le corrélat de l’identité. Latechnologie s’humanise au contact de l’homme, et, en révélant une hybridité supérieure,elle phagocyte l’humain du même coup.Ce travail d’anthropologie bioculturelle (Andrieu, 1993; Andrieu, 2006; Andrieu,2007a), au croisement d’une sociologie des sciences (Latour, 1989), ou encore d’uneanthropologie des sciences (Hakken, 2001), se propose en tant qu’exemple de lacontribution potentielle que l’anthropologie biologique et culturelle peut rendre à lamédecine reconstructrice et que la médecine reconstructrice peut rendre à la plastique del’homme ; l’anthropologie biologique nous concerne dans la transformation biologiquedu corps humain, par l’outil de la technologie, tant dans son histoire de la reconstructionmécanique et plastique, que dans son projet d’augmentation bionique. Nous établironsune continuité archéologique, d’une terminologie foucaldienne, entre les deux pratiques.Nous questionnons les postulats au sujet des relations nature/culture, biologie/contextesocial, et nous présentons une approche définitionnelle de la technologie, pierreangulaire de notre travail théorique. Le trope de la technologie, en tant qu’outil adaptatifde la culture au service de la nature, opère un glissement sémantique en se plaçant auservice d’une biologie à améliorer. Une des clés de notre recherche sur l’augmentationdes fonctions et de l’esthétique du corps humain réside dans la redéfinition même de cesrelations ; et dans l’impact de l’interpénétration entre réalité et imaginaire dans laconstruction de l’objet scientifique, dans la transformation du corps humain.Afin de cerner les enjeux du discours au sujet de l’« autoévolution » des corps, lesthéories évolutionnistes sont abordées, bien que ne représentant pas notre spécialité.Dans le cadre de l’autoévolution, et de l’augmentation bionique de l’homme, la7somation culturelle du corps s’exerce par l’usage des biotechnologies, en ruptureépistémologique de la pensée darwinienne, bien que l’acte d’hybridation évolutionnistesoit toujours inscrit dans un dessein de maximisation bionique/génétique du corpshumain. Nous explorons les courants de la pensée cybernétique dans leurs actions detransformation biologique du corps humain, de la performativité des mutilations. Ainsitechnologie et techniques apparaissent-elles indissociables de la science, et de sonconstructionnisme social. / Situated at the historical and conceptual crossroads of modernity, technology and the“human”, this thesis will negotiate and critique the material and symbolic possibilities ofthe prosthesis, together with its phenomenological and speculative aspects. This workwill be undertaken on the one hand from a subjectivist point of view, using Merleau-Ponty and his conceptualist philosophy of consciousness; and on the another from aviewpoint based on epistemologists of the body and historians of knowledge such asCanguilhem, and Foucault. The promising trope of the prosthesis has an impact ondiscursive and non-discursive structures related to the reconstruction of the body, wheretechnology becomes the correlate of identity.This work in Biological Anthropology (Andrieu, 1993, 2006, 2007), interwining withSociology of Sciences (Latour, 1989) and Anthropology of Sciences (Hakken, 2001), isproposed as an example of the potential contribution which biological and culturalanthropology can make to reconstructive medicine and which reconstructive medecinecan make to human corporeality ; Biological Anthropology allows us to study theprocess of the human body’s biological modification, via technology and theincorporation of biomaterial into the body, through the medical history of mechanicaland plastic reconstruction, and through the cybernetic project of bionic augmentation.An archeological continuity, to use Foucault’s terminology, will be established betweenboth practices.We will question the postulates at stake in the relationships between nature and culture,biology and social context, and will present as a cornerstone of our theoretical work awide range of definitional approaches. The trope of technology as an evolutionaryadaptative tool of culture in the service of nature allows a semantic slide whereby itbecomes a tool to improve one’s biology. One of the keys of our research into thetransformation of the human body in medical practices is the very redefinition of thoserelationships; another is the impact of the interpenetration of reality and imaginary in theconstruction of the scientific object and the transformation of the human body.8In order to locate what is at stake in the discourse on “auto-evolution”, evolutionarytheories are tackled, albeit from a non-specialist outlook. In the context of autoevolutionand bionic augmentation of the human, the cultural somatic modification ofthe body

The heat transfer and friction augmentation in the fully developed portion of a 2:1 aspect ratio rectangular channel with orthogonal ribs at channel Reynolds numbers of 20,000, 30,000, and 40,000 is studied both experimentally and computationally. Ribs are applied to the two opposite wide walls. The rib aspect ratio is varied systematically at 1, 3, and 5, with a constant rib height and constant rib pitch (rib-pitch-to-rib-height ratio of 10). The purpose of the study is to extend the knowledge of the performance of rectangular channels with ribs to include high aspect ratio ribs. The experimental investigation is performed using transient Thermochromic Liquid Crystals technique to measure the distribution of the local Nusselt numbers on the ribbed walls. Overall channel pressure drop and friction factor augmentation is also obtained with the experimental setup. A numerical simulation is also performed by solving the 3-D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the realizable-k-Greek lowercase letter episilon] turbulence model for closure. Flow visualization is obtained from the computational results as well as numerical predictions of local distributions of Nusselt numbers and overal channel pressure drop. Results indicate that with increasing rib width, the heat transfer augmentation of the ribbed walls decreases with a corresponding reduction in channel pressure drop.

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