L’objectif principal de ce projet est d’évaluer le potentiel d’un système de marais filtrants combinés pour le traitement d’un lixiviat contaminé aux agents de préservations du bois - l’arséniate de cuivre chromaté (ACC) et le pentachlorophénol (PCP) - en portant une attention particulière au rôle des plantes. Pour ce faire, une expérience en pot faisant varier la concentration d’exposition de quatre espèces de macrophyte (Typha angustifolia, Phalaris arundinacea, Phragmites australis americanus et Phragmites australis australis) a été effectuée. Le suivi de quatre marais filtrants à écoulement horizontal sous-surfacique, plantés d’une des quatre espèces de macrophyte et d’un bassin planté de saules (Salix Miyabeana SX67) a également été réalisé. La résistance des plantes au milieu contaminé, la capacité de bioaccumulation des macrophytes et les efficacités de traitement des différents systèmes ont été analysés. Nos résultats montrent que la concentration d’exposition n’influence pas la capacité des plantes à croître en milieu contaminé. Par contre, il existe une relation dose-réponse entre la concentration d’exposition et la capacité de bioaccumulation des macrophytes. Les quatre marais pilotes ont tous des efficacités de traitements supérieures à 55% en 2013 et 82% en 2014 pour les contaminants à l’étude. Le bassin de saule a la capacité théorique d’évapotranspirer jusqu’à 1200 L par jour. De plus, ses efficacités de traitements sont supérieures à 59% pour tous les composés à l’étude. L’utilisation de marais filtrants pour le traitement d’un lixiviat contaminé aux agents de préservations du bois est donc une alternative intéressante aux méthodes de traitement conventionnel. / The main objective of this project is to evaluate the capacity of a combined constructed wetland system to treat a leachate polluted with two wood preservatives-chromium copper arsenate (CCA) and pentachlorophenol (PCP)- according a particular importance to the role of plants. The effect of the exposure concentration on four macrophytes species (Typha angustifolia, Phalaris arundinacea, Phragmites australis americanus and Phragmites australis australis) was evaluated using a pot experiment. Four HSSF pilot constructed wetlands, planted with one of these plants species, were monitored. The role of an HSSF constructed wetland, planted with willow (Salix Miyabeana SX67), placed at the end of the treatment chain was also assessed. The plants growth and survival and their bioaccumulation capacity were measured, and the system treatment efficiencies were monitored. There was no effect of the concentration on plants growth but the higher exposure concentration resulted in a higher bioaccumulation in the roots of the four macrophytes. All four pilots CW showed treatment efficiencies superior to 55% in 2013 and to 82% in 2014 for the pollutants tested. The willows CW have the theorical capacity to evapotranspirate up to 1200 L of water. Its treatments efficiencies were over 59% for all the pollutants tested. A combined constructed wetland system is a good alternative to conventional methods to treat a leachate polluted with wood preservatives.

This study investigated the impact of three edaphic factors on the distribution of forest plants in Sweden. Based on 2657 plots with 22 common species, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Generalized-linear-model (GLM) were performed with pH measurements in the top layer of the soil, latitude and deciduous tree proportion as explanatory variables. Variation of the species occurrence could to a substantial degree be explained by pH, latitude and proportion of timber volume of deciduous tree species. Furthermore, the majority of species were affected by the studied environmental variables. Therefore, these factors have an important role in the ecological interactions in the forest. All species also showed broad pH-niches with many occurrences spread out within the species entire pH-range. Finally, the study relates to educational science through designing a meaningful excursion for secondary school when teaching ecology.

The environmental bioavailability of contaminants, rather than their total concentrations in the soil compartment play a decisive role for the risks associated with contaminated sites. Various soil constituents and abiotic conditions have strong influence on bioavailability, which may vary substantially between different locations. It is therefore necessary to site-specifically use tools that reflect the fractions of contaminants that are available to biota and pose the highest potential environmental risks. Bioassays provide integrated toxic responses which include effects from unknown contaminants or combinatory toxic effects from mixtures of contaminants. Thus, biological effect data greatly contribute to establish more realistic exposure and risk-scenarios at contaminated sites. The work underlying this thesis presents possible techniques for high capacity screening for site-specific hazards at contaminated areas. By combining rapid water extractions and cell-based in vitro designs measures of the toxic potential in soils was obtained. Toxicologically bioavailable fractions of mixed metal pollution, including arsenic, were primarily investigated in this thesis. In two of the studies, environmental availability and toxicological bioavailability of arsenic was explored in CCA-contaminated soils. Application of cell-based in vitro screening techniques was also conducted at a metal contaminated industrial site to obtain spatial distribution of toxicity. Multivariate association techniques were employed in the interpretation of environmental exposure and cytotoxicity data. It was shown that cell-based in vitro systems for both basal cytotoxicity and specific end-points targeting arsenic could assess the toxic potential from extracts obtained by several water-based extraction techniques including Pressurised Liquid Extraction (PLE). The cell-based in vitro systems were found to add important information on the site-specific differences in arsenics genotoxic potential from CCA-contaminated soils. The results highlight the importance of taking speciation and toxicological bioavailability into account in the risk analysis, rather than to base risk estimates on total load of contaminants. The presented screening approach was successfully applied at a metal polluted industrial site where spatial distribution of toxicity was obtained. PLE extraction also provided means for combined toxicological and chemical screening of explosives in soils from live-fire training ranges. Multivariate association techniques highly facilitated the interpretation of complex environmental data. The PLE was found to be a rapid extraction technique that has sufficient environmental relevance to be used in environmental impact analyses. It was also concluded that other cell-based in vitro systems that target specific toxic effects have large potential for being used in screening for a variety of environmental chemicals. Keywords: Environmental availability, Environmental bioavailability, Toxicological bioavailability, mixture toxicity, hazard screening, contaminated soils, heavy metals, arsenic, CCA, explosives, soil extraction, water extracts, cell-based in vitro tests, cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, PLE, MVDA, PCA, PLS. / Föroreningars biotillgänglighet snarare än deras totala koncentration i markmiljön styr den risk som kan förknippas med förorenade områden. Biotillgängligheten är ofta långt från 100% p.g.a. en rad olika bindningsytor och processer i jorden som reducerar biotillgängligheten. Således kan biotillgängligheten variera kraftigt mellan olika förorenade platser och även inom samma plats till följd av de specifika förhållanden som råder på respektive plats. Tillämpning av biologiska indikatorer som ger ett mått på den samlade giftigheten från biotillgängliga föroreningar är därför viktiga verktyg i platsspecifika exponerings- och farobedömningar. Många biologiska tester är ofta laborativt intensiva och dyra och lämpar sig mindre väl i testning av ett stort antal prover vilket är önskvärt om en tillräcklig geografisk täckning ska uppnås över ett förenat område. Testsystem som har kapacitet att hantera många prover till en rimlig kostnad är därför mycket användbart för screening i ett inledande skede av en miljöriskanalys av ett förorenat område. Föreliggande avhandlingsarbete presenterar möjliga lösningar i att kombinera snabb vattenextraktionsmetodik med cellbaserade in vitro system för platsspecifik toxikologisk faroscreening av metallförorenade områden. Metodiken erbjuder hög kapacitet för många jordprover. Tillämpning av metodiken har gjorts mot huvudsakligen metallföroreningar, inklusive arsenik. I två delarbeten studerades två modelljordar från CCA-förorenade fastigheter avseende tillgänglighet och giftighet av framför allt arsenik. Vidare studerades om det med applicerad metodik gick att illustrera geografisk utbredning av toxicitet, mätt i cellbaserade in vitro system, som biotillgängliga föroreningar uppvisar på ett metallförorenat industriområde. Slutligen studerades lämpligheten i att använda PLE för kombinerad kemisk och toxikologisk screening av jordar från militära skjutfält som var förorenade med explosivämnen. Cellbaserade in vitro system för mätning av både generell toxicitet och mer specifika effektmarkörer för arsenik visade sig användbara vid mätning från flera vattenbaserade extraktionsmetoder, inklusive PLE (trycksatt vätskeextraktion). Resultaten visade på PLEs tillämplighet som en snabb extraktionsmetod med bibehållen relevans för miljöanalyser. Applikation av cellbaserade in vitro system på vattenextrakt från förorenad jord gav värdefull information bl.a. om platsspecifik genotoxisk potential där specieringen av arsenik hade avgörande betydelse i en fallstudie med CCA-förorenade jordar. Vattenextraktion av jordprover kombinerat med cellbaserade in vitro system kunde också ge en geografisk bild av den omedelbara faran från biotillgängliga metallföroreningar inom ett industriområde. Vattenextraktion med PLE visade sig även användbart för screening av explosivämnen där extrakten direkt kunde användas för såväl kemisk karakterisering som för toxikologisk analys. Även andra typer av in vitro system än de som användes i detta arbete har stor framtida potential för tillämpning i faroscreening av ett stort antal olika typer av miljöföroreningar.

Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), and Copper (Cu) are ubiquitous in soils as a result of anthropogenic and geogenic processes. The fate of As, Cr, and Cu in the environment is largely governed by their speciation, which is influenced by soil physiochemical properties. This study investigated the influence of soil physiochemical properties and landscape position on As, Cr, and Cu concentration and speciation in soils adjacent to Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) treated lumber fence posts. Concentration gradients showed elevated total As and Cu adjacent to the three fence posts, which decreased with increasing distance from the posts. In addition, As and Cu had higher concentrations in the surface soil samples than the subsoil samples possibly due to enhanced weathering of the CCA treated posts at the surface. Concentrations of As, Cr, and Cu were similar among the Maury and Donerail silt loam, however, they were closer to the background concentration in the Newark silt loam, a partially hydric soil, indicating mobility of the metals. Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy indicates As(V) is the predominate species which is principally coordinated with Fe and Al whereas, Cu(II) is coordinated with soil organic matter. Overall, the use of CCA treated lumber as a metal source can help determine how soil properties influence mobility and speciation of As, Cr, and Cu across the soil landscape.

The use of conversational agents has increased across the world. From providing automated support for companies to being virtual psychologists they have moved from an academic curiosity to an application with real world relevance. While many researchers have focused on the content of the dialogue and synthetic speech to give the agents a voice, more recently animating these characters has become a topic of interest. An additional use for character animation technology is in the film and video game industry where having characters animated without needing to pay for expensive labour would save tremendous costs. When animating characters there are many aspects to consider, for example the way they walk. However, to truly assist with communication automated animation needs to duplicate the body language used when speaking. In particular conversational agents are often only an animation of the upper parts of the body, so head motion is one of the keys to a believable agent. While certain linguistic features are obvious, such as nodding to indicate agreement, research has shown that head motion also aids understanding of speech. Additionally head motion often contains emotional cues, prosodic information, and other paralinguistic information. In this thesis we will present our research into synthesising head motion using only recorded speech as input. During this research we collected a large dataset of head motion synchronised with speech, examined evaluation methodology, and developed a synthesis system. Our dataset is one of the larger ones available. From it we present some statistics about head motion in general. Including differences between read speech and story telling speech, and differences between speakers. From this we are able to draw some conclusions as to what type of source data will be the most interesting in head motion research, and if speaker-dependent models are needed for synthesis. In our examination of head motion evaluation methodology we introduce Forced Canonical Correlation Analysis (FCCA). FCCA shows the difference between head motion shaped noise and motion capture better than standard methods for objective evaluation used in the literature. We have shown that for subjective testing it is best practice to use a variation of MUltiple Stimuli with Hidden Reference and Anchor (MUSHRA) based testing, adapted for head motion. Through experimentation we have developed guidelines for the implementation of the test, and the constraints on the length. Finally we present a new system for head motion synthesis. We make use of simple templates of motion, automatically extracted from source data, that are warped to suit the speech features. Our system uses clustering to pick the small motion units, and a combined HMM and GMM based approach for determining the values of warping parameters at synthesis time. This results in highly natural looking motion that outperforms other state of the art systems. Our system requires minimal human intervention and produces believable motion. The key innovates were the new methods for segmenting head motion and creating a process similar to language modelling for synthesising head motion.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The use of agro-industrial by-products with pozzolanic properties has become an alternative in the cement industry because of the increasing consumption of cement, aiming at the rational use and sustainability of the mines that produce raw materials for the production of clinker and longer life of concrete structures. This research investigates the influence of the curing period and of the use of rice husk ash with different contents of graphitic carbon on the compressive strength, total shrinkage and chloride penetration of concretes with high early age strength cement. The levels of replacement of Portland cement adopted were 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 30%, the water/binder ratios of 0.35, 0.50 e 0.65 and the wet curing periods of 3 and 7 days. A mixture containing 10% of silica fume to replace Portland cement was used as benchmark. Compressive strength was obtained by a compressive test using cylindrical specimens (Ø 100 mm x 200 mm) according to NBR 5738 and 5739 standards for the ages of 28 and 91 days. The determination of shrinkage was made according to the recommendations of ASTM C-157 (ASTM, 2006) and ASTM C-490 (ASTM, 2004) in test specimens with 100 mm x 100 mm x 285 mm evaluated at the ages of 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 56, 91 and 182 days. Before being immersed in saline, the test specimens were dried for 91 days. Based on the findings, it has been found, for all mixtures investigated, that the increase in the wet cure period led to higher compressive strength values, lower shrinkage values and reduced chloride penetration for the investigated mixtures. The opposite behavior was observed with the increase of w/b ratio. The mixtures containing rice husk ash of lower contents of graphitic carbon (light-colored) showed the highest values of compressive strength. However, analysis at equal content of replacement shows that this behavior varies according to the a/agl ratio, age at test and curing period, not indicating a general tendency. This behavior is also valid for analysis of mixtures with rice husk ash and silica fume. In the test of shrinkage and chloride penetration following shrinkage, the mixtures of rice husk ash of lower contents of graphitic carbon have shown, in general, better performance, with lower shrinkage values and reduced chloride penetration. / A utilização de subprodutos agroindustriais com características pozolânicas tem sido uma das alternativas encontradas diante do crescente consumo de cimento, visando à racionalidade e à sustentabilidade das jazidas fornecedoras de matérias-primas para produção do clínquer e à maior vida útil das estruturas de concreto. Nesta pesquisa, investiga-se a influência do período de cura e da utilização de cinza de casca de arroz com diferentes teores de carbono grafítico na resistência à compressão axial, retração total e penetração de íons cloreto de concretos com cimento Portland de alta resistência inicial. Os teores de substituição ao cimento Portland adotados foram de 0%, 5%, 10%, 20% e 30%, as relações água/aglomerante de 0.35, 0.50 e 0.65 e os períodos de cura úmida de 3 e 7 dias. Uma mistura com 10% de sílica ativa em substituição ao cimento Portland foi empregada como parâmetro de comparação. A resistência à compressão axial foi avaliada em corpos de prova cilíndricos (Ø 100 mm x 200 mm) segundo as normas NBR 5738 e 5739, para as idades de 28 e 91 dias. A determinação da retração foi feita conforme recomendações da ASTM C-157 (ASTM, 2006) e ASTM C-490 (ASTM, 2004) em corpos de prova de dimensões 100 mm x 100 mm x 285 mm avaliados nas idades de 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 56, 91 e 182 dias. A avaliação de penetração de íons cloreto (imersão em solução salina) foi realizada nas idades de 7, 14, 28, 56 e 91 dias. Antes de serem imersos em solução salina, os corpos de prova foram submetidos a um período de secagem de 91 dias. Dos resultados obtidos, constatou-se, para todas as misturas investigadas, que o aumento do período de cura úmida resultou em maiores valores de resistência à compressão, menores valores de retração e menor penetração de íons cloreto para as misturas investigadas. Comportamento contrário foi observado com o aumento da relação a/ag. As misturas compostas com CCA de menor teor de carbono grafítico (clara) apresentaram os maiores valores de resistência à compressão, contudo, quando se analisa em igualdade de teor de substituição, esse comportamento varia em função da relação a/agl, idade de ensaio e prazo de cura, não apresentando uma tendência geral. Esse comportamento também é válido quando se analisa as misturas com CCA e SA. No ensaio de retração e de penetração de cloretos após retração, as misturas compostas com CCA de menor teor de carbono grafítico apresentaram, no geral, melhor desempenho com menores valores de retração e de penetração de cloretos.

This paper seeks to find whether the spectrum auctions in Sweden have been conducted efficiently and if there is a de facto model that suits all auctions. The efficiency is conditions that emphasise truthful bidding, price discovery and limits collusive behaviour. The paper compares three different auction models used in Sweden, a beauty contest used in the allocation of 3G spectrums, and the auction model selected for the upcoming 5G spectrum auction. The auction models are as follows: first and second-price sealed-bid auction, SMRA and CCA. We found that beauty contests should not be used in any spectrum allocation as it did not meet the criteria of efficiency outlined in this paper. The first-price sealed-bid auction is not a suitable format for spectrum auctions. According to the theory, it generates equivalent revenues on average as the second-price format, which shows a higher degree of efficient allocation. We found that depending on the blocks sold, both SMRA and CCA can result in somewhat efficient results, but they are not suitable for a single object auction. We found that no de facto auction format is suitable for every spectrum auction to be conducted in the future, but instead that the auction format is dependent on the characteristics of the individual auctions.

tRNAs spielen eine zentrale Rolle in jedem bekannten Organismus. Sie agieren als Adaptoren, um den Code der Nukleinsäuren in eine funktionale Aminosäuresequenz zu übersetzen. Ihre Struktur folgt einer hoch konservierten Kleeblattform, die aus dem D-Arm, dem Anticodonarm und –loop, dem TΨC-Arm und dem Akzeptorstamm gebildet wird. 5ʹ-und 3ʹ-Ende bilden den Akzeptorstamm, wobei das 3ʹ-Ende mit dem Diskriminator und dem universalen CCA-Triplett um vier Nukleotide herausragt. Das CCA-addierende Enzym führt die Addition dieses CCA-Tripletts durch und ist ubiquitär in Bakterien, Archaeen und Eukaryoten vorhanden. Für diese Arbeit wurden zwei ungewöhnliche Mitglieder der CCA-addierenden Enzyme untersucht: das CCA-addierende Enzym aus dem Nematoden Romanomermis culicivorax als auch das bifunktionale CCA-addierende Enzym aus dem Bakterium Escherichia coli. In den Mitochondrien des Nematoden Romanomermis culicivorax sind tRNAs codiert, die von der Kleeblattstruktur abweichen. Es wurden die Anpassungen des CCA-addierenden Enzyms an diesen abweichenden tRNA Pool charakterisiert. Der zweite Teil dieser Arbeit betrachtet eine Phosphodiesterase-Domäne, die HD Domäne, in den CCA-addierenden Enzymen der Gammaproteobakterien. In vitro zeigt diese HD Domäne die Abspaltung eines 2ʹ,3ʹ-cyclischen Phosphates vom 3ʹ-Ende von tRNA Strukturen. Weiterhin wurde in in vivo Experimenten die Funktion der HD Domäne des CCA-addierenden Enzyms aus Escherichia coli betrachtet. Dabei wurde beobachtet, dass in Escherichia coli der RNA-Pool mit 2ʹ,3ʹ-cyclischen Phosphaten dynamisch auf Nährstoffmangel reagiert. Insbesondere der tRNA-Pool und deren Fragmente zeigten interessante Veränderungen, wenn Escherichia coli hohe Zelldichten erreichte oder von einem nährstoffreichen Medium auf Minimalmedium versetzt wurde.

Ultraljudsundersökningar av arteria carotis communis (CCA) utförs med ultraljud vid bedömning av kärlförändringar och flödeshastigheter (FH) samt utredning av sjukdomar i CCA. Lumendiameter (LD) i CCA är en markör för riskfaktorer som leder till stroke, hjärtinfarkt och ateroskleros. Syftet med den aktuella studien är att studera om det sker någon vasoaktiv förändring i CCA vid konsumtion av koffein hos unga vuxna. Det var 33 försökspersoner som delades upp i grupper beroende på deras koffeinkonsumtionsvanor och undersöktes med ultraljud. Försökspersonerna hade innan undersökning inte konsumerat koffein på 12 timmar. Undersökningen utfördes innan konsumtion av koffeindryck och 45 minuter efter koffeinkonsumtion. En signifikant skillnad efter konsumtion av koffein påvisades i lågkonsument gruppen (grupp 1) (p.0,06) och högkonsument gruppen (grupp 3) (p=0,05). En positiv korrelation mellan LD innan och efter konsumtion (r=0,955; p <0,01) samt FH innan och efter konsumtion (r=0,393; p <0,01) av koffein kunde påvisas. Nyckelord: Carotisduplex, Kaffe, Vasoaktiv, CCA.

The mitochondrial genome of the nematode Romanomermis culicivorax encodes for miniaturized hairpin-like tRNA molecules that lack D- as well as T-arms, strongly deviating from the consensus cloverleaf. The single tRNA nucleotidyltransferase of this organism is fully active on armless tRNAs, while the human counterpart is not able to add a complete CCA-end. Transplanting single regions of the Romanomermis enzyme into the human counterpart, we identified a beta-turn element of the catalytic core that—when inserted into the human enzyme—confers full CCA-adding activity on armless tRNAs. This region, originally identified to position the 30 -end of the tRNA primer in the catalytic core, dramatically increases the enzyme’s substrate affinity. While conventional tRNA substrates bind to the enzyme by interactions with the T-arm, this is not possible in the case of armless tRNAs, and the strong contribution of the beta-turn compensates for an otherwise too weak interaction required for the addition of a complete CCA-terminus. This compensation demonstrates the remarkable evolutionary plasticity of the catalytic core elements of this enzyme to adapt to unconventional tRNA substrates.