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Rogue waves are unexpected, individual ocean surface waves that are disproportionately large compared to the background sea state. They present considerable risk to mariners and offshore structures when encountered in large seas. Rogue waves have gone from seafarer’s folktales to an actively researched and debated phenomenon. In this work an easily derived spectral parameter, as an indicator of rogue wave risk, is presented, and further evidence for the generation mechanism responsible for these abnormal waves is provided. With the additional goal of providing a practical rogue wave forecast, the ability of a standard wave model to predict the rogue wave probability is assessed. Current forecasts, like those at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), rely on the Benjamin Feir Index (BFI) as a rogue wave predictor, which reflects the nonlinear process of modulation instability as the generation mechanism for rogue waves. However, this analysis finds BFI has little predictive power in the real ocean. From the analysis of long term sea surface elevation records in nearshore areas and hourly bulk statistics from open ocean and coastal buoys in the Northeast Pacific, crest-trough correlation shows the highest correlation with rogue wave probability. These results provide evidence in support of a probabilistic prediction of rogue waves based on random linear superposition and should replace forecasts based on modulation instability. Crest-trough correlation was then forecast by a regional WAVEWATCH III ® wave model with moderate accuracy compared with the high performance of forecasting significant wave height. Results from a case study of a large fall storm October 21-22, 2021, are presented to show that the regional wave model produces accurate forecasts of significant wave height at high seas and presents a potential rogue wave probability forecast. / Graduate

Les spectacles ethnologiques victoriens mettent en scène des milliers de colonisés dans des zoos, cabarets, appartements privés et institutions scientifiques. Cette thèse se penche sur deux spectacles sud-Africains en particulier : les « Zulu Kafirs » et les « Earthmen », montés à Londres dans les années 1850. Prenant pour point de départ « The Noble Savage » de Charles Dickens, écrit après qu’il a vu les « Zulus », ce travail porte sur le fantasme victorien d’un « muséum humain ». Après une étude des concepts de « race » et de « sauvagerie » aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, nous abordons l’évolution des pratiques muséologiques et la fascination de Dickens pour un muséum humain monstrueux. Nous passons ensuite aux spectacles ethnologiques victoriens et au « spécimen » Africain comme « métonyme ethnographique » et mythe, évoluant dans un « fantasme hétérotopique ». Ce fantasme est réalisé dans le Département d’Histoire Naturelle du Palais de Cristal de Sydenham, dans lequel des moulages des « spécimens » sont exposés dans des « théâtres écologiques ». La visite y permet l’exploration sociale et pose le problème d’un cannibalisme moral, quand le colonialisme et l’impérialisme victoriens se heurtent à leurs propres contradictions. Ces dernières sont développées dans Bleak House (1853), où Dickens attaque la « philanthropie télescopique », alors que la « préférence ethnologique » semble aller aux esclaves américains, dont les récits sont publiés et mis en scène. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) pourrait ainsi être lu comme la réalisation de la crainte dickensienne de voir les pauvres s’ensauvager, si les philanthropes persistent à les exclure de leur muséum humain. / Nineteenth-Century ethnological shows involved the display of thousands of colonised people in a variety of urban settings, including zoos, cabarets, private apartments, and scientific institutions. This dissertation focuses on two South African shows in particular: the “Zulu Kafirs” and “Earthmen”, both staged in London in the 1850s. Taking its lead from Charles Dickens’s pamphlet “The Noble Savage”, written after he saw the “Zulus”, this thesis looks at the Victorian fantasy of a “human museum”. Following a historical study of the concepts of “race” and “savagery” in the 18th and 19th centuries, we retrace the evolution of museological practices and look at Dickens’s fascination with a (monstrous) human museum. We then move on to consider Victorian ethnological shows and the African “specimen” as “ethnographical metonym” and myth, displayed in a true “heterotopic fantasy”. This fantasy was realized in the Natural History Department of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, where casts of the “specimens” on show were arranged in “ecological theatres”. There, the museum visit allowed for social exploration among the visitors, and raised the issue of (moral) cannibalism, at the point at which Victorian capitalism and imperialism met their own contradictions. These are further explored in Bleak House (1853), where Dickens attacks “telescopic philanthropy”, as the “ethnological preference” seemed to go to American slaves, whose narratives were published and staged. In this light, we might read A Tale of Two Cities (1859) as the realisation of the writer’s fear that the Poor might revert to a state of “primitive” savagery, if they remain overlooked in the philanthropists’ human museum.

A travers l‟intervention des technologies numériques (films/vidéos, performances, installations multimédias, art en ligne), les artistes contemporains proposent de nouveaux imaginaires corporels et des perceptions inédites des genres. Cette recherche propose une analyse comparée des travaux pluridisciplinaires de Maria Klonaris, Katerina Thomadaki, Steven Cohen et Shu Lea Cheang. Leurs oeuvres permettent d‟élaborer le concept de « jouer le genre » (Judith Butler, 1990), et d‟approcher l‟image de « l‟utopie cyborg sans genre » (Donna Haraway, 1985). Ces possibilités du corps et des sexes font écho à des évolutions technologiques et culturelles, croisant la théorie queer. Ce sont des expérimentations en cours sur des identités en devenir. / Following the actual uses of digital technology (films, videos, performances, multimedia installations and Internet art), contemporary artists offer new visions of the human body and new perceptions of gender. This research offers a comparative analysis of the multidisciplinary works of Maria Klonaris, Katerina Thomadaki, Steven Cohen and Shu Lea Cheang. Their works provides a useful framework for understanding Judith Butler's theory of "gender performativity"(1990) and Donna Haraway‟s vision of "utopian dream of the hope for a monstrous world without gender"(1985). The possibilities of the body and gender respond to technological and cultural evolutions that are linked with queer theory. These works are on-going experiments for identities that are in-the-making.

À en croire Chris Hables Gray nous sommes tous devenus des cyborg citizen. La science-fiction regorge de ces corps fantasmés de cyborgs aux allures de dieux antiques parcourant les espaces intersidéraux ou bien voyageant dans le temps. Toujours plus beaux, performants, rapides et intelligents que l'homo sapiens sapiens, les êtres humains du futur sont généralement divisés en deux catégories : ceux qui ont évolué et ceux qui sont toujours aussi limités que l'homme actuel, « obsolètes » pour employer le mot de néo-mutants comme Lukas Zpira ou Stélarc. Tantôt machine anthropomorphe aux airs de dieu omnipotent, tantôt cerveau synthétique omniscient, l'I.A. renvoie en partie à « la fin », au double sens du terme, de l'humanité. Le cyborg, la fin de l’homme ou un homme meilleur ? Ces « intentions mélioristes » qui laissent sceptique un David Le Breton sont perceptibles dans le cinéma, la littérature ou le jeu vidéo. Le corps s’altère. Humain, trop humain, surhumain, posthumain ? Au travers des progrès scientifiques, tant de la génétique que des technologies de l'information, le corps humain lambda se retrouve trié sur le volet à la naissance par des politiques eugénistes dissimulées sous des propos de luttes contre les maladies à la manière d'un Bienvenue à Gattaca, puis propulsé dans les mondes virtuels, pénétrant des royaumes, jusqu'à présent fictifs, sur une base quotidienne par le biais des technologies qui l'entourent. Le rêve des body hacktivistes est une hétérotopie futuriste, où chacun est libre de choisir sa mutation et où La Mouche de David Cronenberg pourrait côtoyer un Na'vi d'Avatar sans que personne ne s’étonne de ces corps de freaks qui ne sont plus simplement des corps de cyborgs à l'aspect humain mais des corps de monstres à l'esprit humain. Ces biocyborgs sont paradoxalement plus humains que nous. Quelle part restera-t-il de notre corps charnel dans le corps futur ? Y-a-t-il encore une place pour l'homo sapiens sapiens dans le futur ou bien sera-t-il forcé d'abandonner son corps ? À en croire Paul Virilio ou Jean Baudrillard, la disparition du corps est inévitable. Après avoir mis en évidence l’histoire et la généalogie du cyborg, du mythe fictionnel à sa réalisation actuelle, cette thèse se demandera « qu’est-ce que vivre en cyborgs aujourd’hui ? » / According to Chris Hable Gray we all are cyborg citizen now. Science-fiction is full of fantasy bodies looking like ancient gods wandering through space and time, always more beautiful, capable of more performances, faster and smarter than homo sapiens sapiens, generally beings of the future belong to two types: those who evolved and those that remained as limited as present humans, « obsolete » to quote the word of neo-mutants like Lukas Zpira or Stélarc. Some are anthropomorphic almighty god-like machines, others all-knowing synthetic brains, A.I. partly refers to « the end » of Humankind in its double meaning. Is the cyborg the end of man or a better human? Those intended enhancements which puzzled David Le Breton are seen in films, literature or video games. The body alters itself. Human, too human, superhuman, posthuman? Through scientific progress both in genetic and in mass media, the everyday human body finds himself screened at birth by eugenic policies hidden under motives like fight against diseases, as depicted in Gattaca and then thrown into virtual worlds on a daily base, entering kingdoms, fictive so far, using the surrounding technologies. The Body Hacktivist's dream is a futuristic heterotopia, where everyone is free to choose his mutation and where the David Cronenberg's Fly could walk alongside a Na'vi from Avatars surprising no one by their freaks bodies, ultimately: not cyborg bodies looking like humans but freak bodies implanted with human souls. Those biocyborgs are paradoxically more human than we are. What part of our carnal body will remain? Does homo sapiens sapiens have a future or will he need to shed away his body ? If we follow Paul Virilio or Jean Baudrillard, the vanishing of the body is inescapable. After bringing out the history and genealogy of the cyborg, from fictional myth to actual realisation, this thesis will endeavour to show “what is living as a cyborg nowadays?”

This thesis examines the symbiotic relationship between the meanings of tattoos and social norms through a comparative analysis of three distinct periods in twentieth-century American history. I use extensive archival material and an interdisciplinary approach to explain how the meanings of body ink shifted and to identify factors that influenced the public’s perceptions of tattoos as deviant or acceptable. In the 1920s and 1930s, tattooing practices among favored social groups, specifically military personnel, middle- and upper-class white men and women, and circus performers, generally received more positive reactions than those among lower-class and criminal subcultures. In the 1950s and 1960s, body ink became practiced primarily by marginalized individuals, such as criminals, bikers, and sex workers, and the general public’s understandings of tattoos as indicators of deviance and dangerous immorality strengthened. The new clientele and practitioners of the 1970s and 1980s mainly came from a high socio-economic status and reframed their tattooing practices as artistic expressions of individuality. I argue that, although body ink aesthetic by and large supported American values of patriotism, heteronormativity, and racial advantage, tattooing practices among ‘respectable’ groups were more accepted than those by ‘deviant’ subcultures. My research shows that the fluctuations between public rejection and appreciation of tattoos in these periods rested principally on the appearance and function of the inked design and on the position of the tattooed body in the social hierarchy. This thesis demonstrates that tattooing practices created and perpetuated but also destabilized and influenced gender-, race-, and class-based American ideals, and my research exposes the nuanced connections of body ink with deviance and normativity, the malleability of social conventions, and a complex web of power relations constantly in flux. / Graduate / 2018-08-23

This master thesis deals with usage of machine learning methods in computer vision for classification of unknown images. The first part contains research of available machine learning methods, their limitations and also their suitability for this task. The second part describes the processes of creating training and testing gallery. In the practical part, the solution for the problem is proposed and later realised and implemented. Proper testing and evaluation of resulting system is conducted.

This master’s thesis deals with an important part of computer vision field. Main focus of this thesis is on feature detectors and descriptors in an image. Throughout the thesis the simplest feature detectors like Moravec detector will be presented, building up to more complex detectors like MSER or FAST. The purpose of feature descriptors is in a mathematical description of these points. We begin with the oldest ones like SIFT and move on to newest and best performing descriptors like FREAK or ORB. The major objective of the thesis is comparison of presented methods on licence plate localization task.

MAAS / Department of African Studies / This study analysed the consequences of the on-going transitional rites on youth morality in the Thulamela Municipality, South Africa, using a qualitative descriptive design. The participants were sampled using a non-random sampling procedure, specifically, a purposive sampling technique and snowball sampling technique. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data from the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) custodians, the parents of the youths and the youths until point of saturation. The analysis was performed using a thematic content method. With the emergence of themes and sub-themes, broad categories were generated to differentiate and explain the thoughts expressed by the various respondents and the observations made in the field. The study findings suggest that the on-going transitional rites is mark by weekend’s social activities with the practice of substance use and abuse among the youth’s in recreational spot. The transitional rites are structured under guise of “freaks” as an evolve culture among the youths. The freaks culture is a counterculture of the usual initiation’s schools for transitional rites of passage which instil morality among youths. The emerged findings comprehensively show that the on-going transitional rites effect inappropriate youth morality. This study concluded that the on-going transitional rites activities and practices evolved as a current socialization standard for quick maturity status, as a result of that, it will be harder to provide a complete change of this evolving culture. However, what will work is to build on the exciting transitional rites of passage to moderate appropriate youths’ morality in Thulamela communities. / NRF

The cis norm could be described as the norm that forces everyone to be either female or male and that genitals, gender identity and juridical sex should be constant throughout a person’s lifetime. “Cis” means “on the same side” in Latin, and in this study Wendel Strömbeck, student at the Pedagogy Institution of Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, has coined the notion “the cis gaze”. “The cis gaze” refer to a performative act of sorting bodies into a female or male category. Wendel study how people with trans* experiences could experience gazes and pictures in relation to the cis norm. The study is based on the queer community that Wendel is a part of, and includes interviews and self-reflections. “Trans” means “to move over” in Latin and “trans*” refers to the whole spectra of possible ways of transgressing the cis norm. The study is devided into two parallel works, an essay and an artistic figuration, a comic book. The comic book includes rendering of the interviews that Wendel has carried out and an irreverent study of cis gendered persons. The essay also includes rendering of the same interviews and an analysis of a poster for the Hollywood movie Glen or Glenda from 1953