Although fiberglass reinforced polyester manholes and wetwalls have been proven by the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) and are currently being used in some parts of the world, there still exists a lack of investigation for testing manhole covers made with different inorganic fillers under static and dynamic behavior. The filler would not only improve the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite not otherwise achieved by the resin ingredients alone but also lower the overall manufacturing costs by decreasing the amount of fiber content without adversely affecting the composite’s mechanical properties. The main objective involved the development of fiberglass laminated manhole covers with different inorganic fillers and to study the static and dynamic behavior of the material by performing experimental and numerical analysis. The materials used for the composite laminated test specimens consisted of E-glass woven roving fabric, epoxy, and filler. Two types of inorganic fillers were used for this study, calcium carbonate and high-density adhesive fillers. The static/dynamic test results showed that the laminates made with fiberglass and filler experienced lower performance in tensile strength but higher improvement in flexural strength. The modal analysis results showed that laminates with less filler experienced higher modes within the specified frequency range. This was expected since the material property of filler increased the stiffness and damping behavior in the composite material.

Large public events, such as concerts, rallies, and festivals, impact turf health when held on natural turfgrass surfaces. The impact associated with these events is due to the placement of physical structures such as stages and seating areas and pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the turf surface. Trafficked turf protection covers, which are field covers meant to be placed directly on the turf surface where pedestrian or vehicular traffic is expected and/or equipment will be placed, can be used to minimize damage to the turf surface. Scientific data on turf response to these covers is lacking. Four cover treatments comprised of a non-covered non-trafficked control, plywood, plywood + Enkamat Plus, and white high-density polypropylene [single sided (Terratile) or double sided (Matrax)] were applied to tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and effects of light intensity, duration of covering, season and soil moisture were evaluated. Growth chambers and field experiments were conducted in 2010-2011. Tissue samples were taken in growth chambers experiments every four days over the 20-day period to analyze chlorophyll (Chl a, Chl b, Chl a+b) and carotenoids (carot) under split factors of light intensity (12hr, PAR 530 μmol m-2 s-1, 5 μmol m-2 s-1) and soil moisture (50%, 75% of pot soil moisture capacity). Field trial treatment effects were observed every two days and eight days after cover removal in the spring, summer and fall and a normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) measure was used at the conclusion of each trial period to confirm visual ratings. Covers that allowed light transmission to the canopy provided the best visual retention of percent green cover and higher contents of Chl a, Chl b, Chl a+b and carot. However, when treatments were tested under conditions that simulated low light under a concert stage (PAR 5 μmol m-2 s-1), covers performed similarly. Moderate soil moisture increased Chl b and carot content under covers. Field trials showed that plywood and plywood + Enkamat allowed for acceptable covering periods of six days in spring, four days in fall, and zero days in summer. Summer conditions shortened the number of days (8 -10) thattall fescue could be covered with Matrax and Terratile and still maintain an acceptable level of green cover. Matrax performed the best during high temperatures and did not tend to sink into the turf in saturated soil. All covers exhibited desirable qualities and limitations that should be considered for turf protection during an event. / Master of Science

Computers are used in the music field for generation of sound, for composing music, for analysis of music, and for musicological applications, such as cataloguing a bibliography of music literature. These areas are relatively new aspects of computer usage, and research is being conducted to stay abreast of current technological advancements. Avant-garde composers are challenged by new advances in music. Computer-generated music is one of the new trends, but the composer is usually limited in the use of the medium for two reasons: there are no computers to which he may have access, and/or there is not enough knowledge about computer-generated music. The composer sometimes feels that he must have vast knowledge of the computer before he can attempt to use it in musical composition; however, a limited amount of investigation of computer-generated music has shown that methods can be codified to the point where great technical knowledge is not required of the composer.

For a number of unsolved problems in graph theory such as the cycle double cover conjecture, Fulkerson's conjecture and Tutte's 5-flow conjecture it is sufficient to prove them for a family of graphs called snarks. Named after the mysterious creature in Lewis Carroll's poem, a \emph{snark} is a cyclically 4-edge connected 3-regular graph of girth at least 5 which cannot be properly edge coloured using three colours. Snarks and problems for which an edge minimal counterexample must be a snark are the central topics of this thesis.   The first part of this thesis is intended as a short introduction to the area. The second part is an introduction to the appended papers and the third part consists of the four papers presented in a chronological order. In Paper I we study the strong cycle double cover conjecture and stable cycles for small snarks. We prove that if a bridgeless cubic graph $G$ has a cycle of length at least $|V(G)|-9$ then it also has a cycle double cover. Furthermore we show that there exist cyclically 5-edge connected snarks with stable cycles and that there exists an infinite family of snarks with stable cycles of length 24. In Paper II we present a new algorithm for generating all non-isomorphic snarks with a given number of vertices. We generate all snarks on 36 vertices and less and study these with respect to various properties. We find that a number of conjectures on cycle covers and colourings holds for all graphs of these orders. Furthermore we present counterexamples to no less than eight published conjectures on cycle coverings, cycle decompositions and the general structure of regular graphs.     In Paper III we show that Jaeger's Petersen colouring conjecture holds for three infinite families of snarks and that a minimum counterexample to this conjecture cannot contain a certain subdivision of $K_{3,3}$ as a subgraph. Furthermore, it is shown that one infinite family of snarks have strong Petersen colourings while another does not have any such colourings. Two simple constructions for snarks with arbitrary high oddness and resistance is given in Paper IV. It is observed that some snarks obtained from this construction have the property that they require at least five perfect matchings to cover the edges. This disproves a suggested strengthening of Fulkerson's conjecture.

La siguiente investigación se centra en el discurso utilizado por los medios de comunicación escrita del área deportiva en el Perú. Se utilizará como caso específico el diario Depor, el más joven en el mercado, pero con mayor cantidad de lectores a nivel nacional. El objeto a investigar serán las portadas y los elementos que la componen para así poder determinar si contienen dentro de su presentación herramientas discursivas sensacionalistas. El periodo de investigación recurrirá entre marzo y junio del 2018 meses donde la selección se preparó y jugó el mundial de Rusia 2018, competencia a la que no asistía hace 36 años. En el desarrollo veremos la relación entre la objetividad y el hinchaje, cómo el sentimiento nacionalista se ve afectado con el discurso periodístico, la utilización recurrente de personajes heroicos y la apelación sistemática del pasado. / The following research focuses on the discourse used by the sports section of the written media in Peru. Depor, the newest sports newspaper in the market, but with the largest number of readers nationwide, will be used as a specific case of study. The subject of investigation will be their covers and elements that compose it, in order to determine if they contain sensationalist discursive tools within their presentation. The period of investigation will focus between March and June of 2018, months where the Peruvian team prepared for and played the 2018 Russia World Cup, a competition they didn’t attend for 36 years. Through the development of this paper, we will see the relationship between objectivity and fandom, how the journalistic discourse is affected by the nationalist sentiment, the recurrent use of heroic characters and the systematic appeal of the past. / Tesis

Acrescente capacidade de armazenamento introduziu novos desafios no contexto de exploração de grandes bases de dados de músicas. Esse trabalho consiste em investigar técnicas de comparação de músicas representadas por sinais polifônicos, com o objetivo de encontrar similaridades, permitindo a identificação de músicas cover em grandes bases de dados. Técnicas de extração de características a partir de sinais musicais foram estudas, como também métricas de comparação a partir das características obtidas. Os resultados mostraram que é possível encontrar um novo método de identificação de covers com um menor custo computacional do que os existentes, mantendo uma boa precisão / The growing capacity in storage and transmission of songs has introduced a new challenges in the context of large music data sets exploration. This work aims at investigating techniques for comparison of songs represented by polyphonic signals, towards identifying cover songs in large data sets. Techniques for music feature extraction were evaluated and compared. The results show that it is possible to develop new methods for cover identification with a lower computational cost when compared to existing solutions, while keeping the good precision

IKEA is a unique home furnishing retailer in selling water washable slip covers for living room sofa.The aim of this research is to set product requirements for sofa covers in accordance with the usage at home by customers.This was done by conducting consumer survey to understand need, reviewing existing quality, test methods and proposal of new requirements and test methods. The overall objective is every day quality guarantee and better communication with customers in store. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Applied Textile Management

<p>This thesis is about cover illustrations of DVD movies as examples of visual communication. I have studied the cover illustrations of the three movies <em>Gran Torino, Secret Window</em> and <em>As White As Snow.</em> My research assignment has been to find out how the cover illustrations of DVD movies communicate in relation to the story. I have also been looking for what makes a cover illustration interesting and if the interest in itself is individually considered or if there are certain general rules regardless of the observer.</p><p>To reach a conclusion I have been studying components in advertising pictures, visual communication and how the commercial producers use advertising to communicate with the observer. Semiotics, advertising and comparisons between the cover illustrations have been my method for analyze.</p><p>I have come to the conclusion that cover illustrations are meticulously produced, and that every single part of them is important for the observers’ over all impression and interpretation of the cover illustration. The place of picture elements, colours, looks and occurrence of persons in the covers are striving to send a uniform message about the cover and movie. They also guide the observer in his/her interpretation of the cover and what kind of movie it represents, and they are components that make the cover more visible. What makes the cover illustration interesting is both something individual and something general. For example the occurrence of humans, looks, strong emotions and colours make the cover more visible and interesting in relation to others. The observers’ interest for the cover may be individual depending on the observer’s experiences and interpretation.</p><p> </p>

This thesis is about cover illustrations of DVD movies as examples of visual communication. I have studied the cover illustrations of the three movies Gran Torino, Secret Window and As White As Snow. My research assignment has been to find out how the cover illustrations of DVD movies communicate in relation to the story. I have also been looking for what makes a cover illustration interesting and if the interest in itself is individually considered or if there are certain general rules regardless of the observer. To reach a conclusion I have been studying components in advertising pictures, visual communication and how the commercial producers use advertising to communicate with the observer. Semiotics, advertising and comparisons between the cover illustrations have been my method for analyze. I have come to the conclusion that cover illustrations are meticulously produced, and that every single part of them is important for the observers’ over all impression and interpretation of the cover illustration. The place of picture elements, colours, looks and occurrence of persons in the covers are striving to send a uniform message about the cover and movie. They also guide the observer in his/her interpretation of the cover and what kind of movie it represents, and they are components that make the cover more visible. What makes the cover illustration interesting is both something individual and something general. For example the occurrence of humans, looks, strong emotions and colours make the cover more visible and interesting in relation to others. The observers’ interest for the cover may be individual depending on the observer’s experiences and interpretation.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze DVD covers for the genre romantic comedy from the 2000s as a way to obtain patterns and codes provided by the genre. The theoretical framework consists of previous research that analyzed various posters, theories about semiotics, genre, and visual rhetoric.  These theories will help answer the main question and help with the analysis. The objects for observation are ten DVD covers from the genre romantic comedy and a qualitative content analysis is used for this thesis. The movies are from the US and they are all high in Box Office. Box Office stands for how many tickets were sold and how much money a film has earned. The use of numbers from Box Office shows that the movie had a successful marketing prior coming out as DVD. The analysis focuses also on movies from the year 2003 – 2012 as a way to get a ten years gap and also get the contemporary movies. The results show that there are codes and patterns provided from various DVD covers. Visual expressions as clothing, angles, perspectives, postures, facial expressions and colors say a lot about how the genre is visualized. It's also important for these visual expressions to work together – as they tell a story about the relationships and the characters, and also what the movie is going to be about. The main conclusion is that the woman is usually the one who is in focus and she is the active one. This doesn't necessary mean that the woman is in a higher position when it comes to the society or that she'll always have the upper hand in the relationship, but she is the one that has the upper hand right now. It's also clear that the DVD covers show when the couples aren't happily ever after. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi från 2000-talet för att få fram mönster och koder som ges från genren. Det teoretiska ramverket består av tidigare forskning som analyserat olika affischer - samt teorier om semiotik, genre och visuell retorik. Dessa teorier används för att svara på frågeställningen och för att hjälpa till vid analysen. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys har analyserat tio olika DVD-omslag för genren romantisk komedi. Filmerna som analyserats är från USA och anses som höga inom Box Office. Begreppet Box Office står för hur många biljetter som har sålts och hur mycket pengar en film tjänat in. Användingen av siffor från Box Office visar att filmen hade en lyckad marknadsföring innan den kom ut på DVD, vilket gör att den används för denna analys. Analysen fokuserar sig också bara på filmer från år 2003 – 2012 då man får ett mellanrum på tio år och filmerna blir samtida. Resultatet från den kvalitativa metoden visar att det finns koder och mönster som ges från olika DVD-omslag. Visuella uttryck som kläder, vinklar, perspektiv, kroppshållning, ansiktsuttryck och färger påverkar mycket hur ett DVD-omslag uppfattas och säger mycket om hur genren visualiserats. Det är också viktigt att dessa visuella uttryck arbetar ihop då de tillsammans berättar något om relationerna, karaktärerna och vad filmen kommer att handla om. Slutsatsen visade att kvinnan oftast är den som är i fokus och aktiv. Detta betyder inte nödvändigt att kvinnan är i en högre position i samhället eller att hon kommer alltid att ha övertaget i relationen, men att hon styr just nu. Det är också tydligt att DVD-omslagen inte visar när paren är lyckliga i alla sina dagar.