In its complexity, human existence cannot be systematised and generalised into a compact concept. Existentialists are those who devoted themselves to Human individuality and phenomena fundamentally related, such as life, death, freedom, absurdity etc. However, considering the specifics of the philosophy of existentialism, it is not possible to only consider philosophers as the only bearers of this intellectual approach, but it is necessary to include certain individuals of world literature in this movement. The concept of human existence has transformed itself in various ways in their philosophy and works. Once it was dominated by the existence of God, to whom it was necessary to set one's mind on, at other times it was thrown into the bleakness and futility of a world without hope. However, the central topic was the same in each of them, the subject that is closest to us people, however, the subject that will always be the great unknown, regardless of the genial thoughts of Sören Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Fjodor Michajlovič Dostojevsky and Albert Camus - the topic of mankind and its place in the world.

"Living sacrifice" (established by Abraham, continuing in Job, fulfilled in Jesus Christ and emphasized by apostle Paul) is for me a life-attitude originating in relationship with God. The importance and depth of personal self-sacrifice was highlighted by F. M. Dostojevskij. He transformed it into various characters in his novels, which understandably depicted the theme of selfless life in all the complexity of current culture. According to my opinion, selfless existence is a result of God´s wor in a human being. It is a life recast and transformed by the Word of God. A man can only open himself (and decide) to live like a ?living sacrifice?. The beginning of this role consists in unconditional adhering to God, although He can even appear to be a person´s adversary (like in the case of Abraham and Job). ?Living sacrifice? existence is not a gesture to ?bribe? God, or to dazzle crowds. It is a self-sacrifice originating in faith, that ? both in results and secrecy, manifests itself as a creative and life-enhancing selflessness, referring to God and overcoming evil.

No presente trabalho propõe-se uma análise comparativa de Gente Pobre (1845), primeira obra do escritor russo Fiódor Mikhailovitch Dostoiévski, e Famintos (escrito na década de 1940, publicado em 1962), único romance do cabo-verdiano Luís Romano Madeira de Melo. Para tanto são levadas em conta certas coincidências entre os contextos em que se produzia Literatura na Rússia tzarista do século XIX e no Cabo Verde colônia de meados do século XX, e no cotejo entre as obras em questão consideramos, além da temática comum - a miséria -, aspectos relativos à linguagem e à postura humanista de ambos os autores, que os distanciam, em certa medida, dos escritores chamados naturalistas. / In this work we propose a comparative analysis of the novel Poor Folk, the first work of the Russian author Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky, and The Famished (written in the decade of 1940 and published in 1962), the only novel of the Cape Verdean Luís Romano Madeira de Melo. To do this are taken into consideration some coincidences in the contexts in which the literature was produced, in the 19th century Tsarist Russia and in the Cape Verde-colony of mid-20th century. To compare the two works we consider, in addition to the common theme the poverty , aspects of the language and the humanist attitude of both authors, which in some way dissociate them from the so-called Naturalistic writers.

No presente trabalho propõe-se uma análise comparativa de Gente Pobre (1845), primeira obra do escritor russo Fiódor Mikhailovitch Dostoiévski, e Famintos (escrito na década de 1940, publicado em 1962), único romance do cabo-verdiano Luís Romano Madeira de Melo. Para tanto são levadas em conta certas coincidências entre os contextos em que se produzia Literatura na Rússia tzarista do século XIX e no Cabo Verde colônia de meados do século XX, e no cotejo entre as obras em questão consideramos, além da temática comum - a miséria -, aspectos relativos à linguagem e à postura humanista de ambos os autores, que os distanciam, em certa medida, dos escritores chamados naturalistas. / In this work we propose a comparative analysis of the novel Poor Folk, the first work of the Russian author Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoevsky, and The Famished (written in the decade of 1940 and published in 1962), the only novel of the Cape Verdean Luís Romano Madeira de Melo. To do this are taken into consideration some coincidences in the contexts in which the literature was produced, in the 19th century Tsarist Russia and in the Cape Verde-colony of mid-20th century. To compare the two works we consider, in addition to the common theme the poverty , aspects of the language and the humanist attitude of both authors, which in some way dissociate them from the so-called Naturalistic writers.

Photogrammetry and Structure-from-Motion (S-f-M) is a low-cost method of producing digital 3D models of rock samples that can be used for many different research and educational purposes. A 3D model of a delicate rock sample would enable the preservation of the sample and reduce the need of physical manipulation. This thesis presents a systematic workflow to document and study rock samples by using photogrammetry and S-f-M. The manual in this work describes how to use the set up SOOSI (Spinning Object Optical Scanning Instrument) found at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University to produce digital 3D models of geological samples. The thesis gives a background to photogrammetry in Earth sciences, and it presents the fundamentals of photogrammetry and the camera. It explains the processing chain of photogrammetry and how computers assist in the photogrammetric process for the reader to understand the importance of the steps in the manual. 3D models produced from following the workflow are presented as well as implications of choices that can be made when following the workflow. The addition of a fixed lens to the camera setup would improve the method’s robustness. The models are currently limited due to a lack of absolute scale. A suggestion for developing a method to capture Ground Control Points (GCPs) to solve the scale problem is presented. / Fotogrammetri och Structure-from-Motion (S-f-M) är en billig metod för att producera digitala 3D-modeller av stuffer som kan användas i olika forsknings- och undervisningssyften. Modeller av stenstuffer minskar behovet av att fysiskt ta i dem och används därför i syfte att bevara ömtåliga stuffer. Denna uppsats presenterar ett systematiskt arbetsflöde för att dokumentera stuffer genom att använda fotogrammetri och S-f-M. Manualen beskriver hur den fotogrammetriska fotostudion SOOSI (Spinning Object Optical Scanning Instrument), som finns på institutionen för geovetenskaper vid Uppsala universitet, används för att producera digitala 3D-modeller. Uppsatsen ger en bakgrund till fotogrammetri inom geovetenskapen och den beskriver kamerans och fotogrammetrins grunder. Vidare förklaras fotogrammetrins bearbetningskedja och hur datorer bidrar i den fotogrammetriska processen för att läsaren ska förstå de olika stegen i manualen. 3D-modeller producerade genom att följa arbetsättet presenteras och de olika val som kan tas när en följer manualen och dess implikationer på resultaten diskuteras. Arbetsättet skulle förbättras om ett objektiv med fast brännvidd införskaffades till fotostudion. 3D-modellernas användningsområde begränsas av att de saknar absolut skala därför presenteras ett förslag till att utveckla arbetsmetoden med hjälp av Ground Control Points (GCP:er).

Present thesis aims at revealing both touching points and different points of departure in Nietzsche's and Dostoevsky's concept of superman by using so called philosophical- anthropological approach to the questions matter. It takes into account not only complete context of oeuvre of both authors but also wider cultural and historical context of their time. Basic point of departure of this thesis is expectation of crucial position of man in the oeuvre of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky as well, both understanding man as essentially defined as free to choice. Analysis of characteristics defining essence of man leads after to elaboration of idea of superman - conclusion of final judgement of human beings' essential characteristics and visions of future principle of man. Having closely analysed particular landmarks on the way from man to superman in the form of particular types of relations to each person's being and freedom - last man, upper man and superman (or common and exceptional man) - we are arriving to systematic comparison of motif of superman in the thinking of both authors, to associated concepts (negative and positive freedom, suppression of nihilism and so on) and finally to its general meaning. KEY WORDS F. Nietzsche, F. M. Dostoevsky, superman, freedom, nihilism, upper man, last man, will to...

Ultrasonic sludge disintegration &ndash / the most commonly used mechanical pretreatment method- enables the occurrence of cavitation bubbles to extract intracellular material from the cell into aqueous phase. However, there is a lack of information on the volatile solids loading on the anaerobic digestion process performance of ultrasonically treated sludge. In this thesis work, the effect of sonication on disintegration of waste activated sludge (WAS) and an important parameter digester F/M (food to microorganism) ratio on ultrasonically treated WAS were investigated. First, preliminary studies were conducted. It was obtained that when the sonication power and time increased, soluble COD in the supernatant increased as well. Then, batch anaerobic digestion tests were conducted. Effect of F/M ratio in the digesters by using sonicated sludges at different powers was analyzed. For the sludge sonicated at high power, the methane content increased up to 55.1 % at F/M ratio of 10 compared to untreated sludge. On the other hand, methane generation rate slowed down with the increase in F/M ratio. Moreover, 10 % and 15 % increase in the destruction of MLVSS and total COD content was observed for sonicated sludges compared to the untreated sludges, respectively. In summary, both the sonication as a pretreatment method and the increase in digester F/M ratio increased the biogas production and the solids reduction during anaerobic digestion prosess. These results may have important implications for the operation of full scale systems in terms of system efficiency and operation.

De nombreuses caméras CMOS modernes sont équipées de capteurs Rolling Shutter (RS). Ces caméras à bas coût et basse consommation permettent d’atteindre de très hautes fréquences d’acquisition. Dans ce mode d’acquisition, les lignes de pixels sont exposées séquentiellement du haut vers le bas de l'image. Par conséquent, les images capturées alors que la caméra et/ou la scène est en mouvement présentent des distorsions qui rendent les algorithmes classiques au mieux moins précis, au pire inutilisables en raison de singularités ou de configurations dégénérées. Le but de cette thèse est de revisiter la géométrie de la vision 3D avec des caméras RS en proposant des solutions pour chaque sous-tâche du pipe-line de Structure-from-Motion (SfM).Le chapitre II présente une nouvelle méthode de correction du RS en utilisant les droites. Contrairement aux méthodes existantes, qui sont itératives et font l’hypothèse dite Manhattan World (MW), notre solution est linéaire et n’impose aucune contrainte sur l’orientation des droites 3D. De plus, la méthode est intégrée dans un processus de type RANSAC permettant de distinguer les courbes qui sont des projections de segments droits de celles qui correspondent à de vraies courbes 3D. La méthode de correction est ainsi plus robuste et entièrement automatisée.Le chapitre III revient sur l'ajustement faisceaux ou bundle adjustment (BA). Nous proposons un nouvel algorithme basé sur une erreur de projection dans laquelle l’index de ligne des points projetés varie pendant l’optimisation afin de garder une cohérence géométrique contrairement aux méthodes existantes qui considère un index fixe (celui mesurés dans l’image). Nous montrons que cela permet de lever la dégénérescence dans le cas où les directions de scan des images sont trop proches (cas très communs avec des caméras embraquées sur un véhicule par exemple). Dans le chapitre VI nous étendons le concept d'homographie aux cas d’images RS en démontrant que la relation point-à-point entre deux images d’un nuage de points coplanaires pouvait s’exprimer sous la forme de 3 à 7 matrices de taille 3X3 en fonction du modèle de mouvement utilisé. Nous proposons une méthode linéaire pour le calcul de ces matrices. Ces dernières sont ensuite utilisées pour résoudre deux problèmes classiques en vision par ordinateur à savoir le calcul du mouvement relatif et le « mosaïcing » dans le cas RS.Dans le chapitre V nous traitons le problème de calcul de pose et de reconstruction multi-vues en établissant une analogie avec les méthodes utilisées pour les surfaces déformables telles que SfT (Structure-from-Template) et NRSfM (Non Rigid Structure-from-Motion). Nous montrons qu’une image RS d’une scène rigide en mouvement peut être interprétée comme une image Global Shutter (GS) d’une surface virtuellement déformée (par l’effet RS). La solution proposée pour estimer la pose et la structure 3D de la scène est ainsi composée de deux étapes. D’abord les déformations virtuelles sont d’abord calculées grâce à SfT ou NRSfM en assumant un modèle GS classique (relaxation du modèle RS). Ensuite, ces déformations sont réinterprétées comme étant le résultat du mouvement durant l’acquisition (réintroduction du modèle RS). L’approche proposée présente ainsi de meilleures propriétés de convergence que les approches existantes. / Many modern CMOS cameras are equipped with Rolling Shutter (RS) sensors which are considered as low cost, low consumption and fast cameras. In this acquisition mode, the pixel rows are exposed sequentially from the top to the bottom of the image. Therefore, images captured by moving RS cameras produce distortions (e.g. wobble and skew) which make the classic algorithms at best less precise, at worst unusable due to singularities or degeneracies. The goal of this thesis is to propose a general framework for modelling and solving structure from motion (SfM) with RS cameras. Our approach consists in addressing each sub-task of the SfM pipe-line (namely image correction, absolute and relative pose estimation and bundle adjustment) and proposing improvements.The first part of this manuscript presents a novel RS correction method which uses line features. Unlike existing methods, which uses iterative solutions and make Manhattan World (MW) assumption, our method R4C computes linearly the camera instantaneous-motion using few image features. Besides, the method was integrated into a RANSAC-like framework which enables us to detect curves that correspond to actual 3D straight lines and reject outlier curves making image correction more robust and fully automated.The second part revisits Bundle Adjustment (BA) for RS images. It deals with a limitation of existing RS bundle adjustment methods in case of close read-out directions among RS views which is a common configuration in many real-life applications. In contrast, we propose a novel camera-based RS projection algorithm and incorporate it into RSBA to calculate reprojection errors. We found out that this new algorithm makes SfM survive the degenerate configuration mentioned above.The third part proposes a new RS Homography matrix based on point correspondences from an RS pair. Linear solvers for the computation of this matrix are also presented. Specifically, a practical solver with 13 point correspondences is proposed. In addition, we present two essential applications in computer vision that use RS homography: plane-based RS relative pose estimation and RS image stitching. The last part of this thesis studies absolute camera pose problem (PnP) and SfM which handle RS effects by drawing analogies with non-rigid vision, namely Shape-from-Template (SfT) and Non-rigid SfM (NRSfM) respectively. Unlike all existing methods which perform 3D-2D registration after augmenting the Global Shutter (GS) projection model with the velocity parameters under various kinematic models, we propose to use local differential constraints. The proposed methods outperform stat-of-the-art and handles configurations that are critical for existing methods.

This thesis compares four Czech translations of the novel Thérèse Raquin by the French writer Émile Zola. The introduction is focused on the source text and its author. Then the thesis deals with the reception of Thérèse Raquin in the Czech culture and refers also to its entry on the Russian cultural scene. The second part of the thesis is focused on an analysis of the Czech translations. This analysis considers the background in which each text was produced, especially from the point of view of time, and it aims to describe not only the language aspects of each translation, but also the global approach of the translator.

This thesis contains 2 parts (Part A and B) to fulfill the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering. Part A: McMaster (on-campus) project. Part B: McMaster (industrial) project. / Part A abstract: The demodulation of analogue F.M. signals using frequency counting techniques is examined and implemented through the use of modern high speed T.T.L. integrated circuit technology. The entire demodulation unit was derived from exclusively digital components particularly compatible to frequency counting methods. The device was tested with carrier frequencies up to 2MHz and signal frequencies over the entire audio range with varying degrees of modulation. The main limitations appear to lay not in the hardware but in the actual counting technique itself which required quite large frequency deviations to resolve the higher audio frequency signals employed. Part B abstract: Investigation of SnO(2):B:Sb semiconductor species over the temperature range -60°C to +175°C reveals that electrical resistivity in this region is determined by the complex superposition of stable thin film scattering phenomena. Transient effects due to lattice imperfections inherent in the fabrication process start to "anneal” out at temperatures greater than 50°c and can be characterized by an activation energy of the order of .013 eV. Uncompensated samples doped heavily with boron illustrate a trend toward ionized impurity scattering at lower temperatures but mainly the species exhibits a complicated interplay of acoustical and optical phonon scattering modulated by doping level in such a manner as to lower T.C.R. An empirical expression relating resistivity-temperature behaviour to doping is developed. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)