Polyblastia A. Massal. is a genus of lichenized fungi belonging to Verrucariaceae (Ascomycota). Traditional classification heavily rested on a few cardinal characters, primarily ascoma structure and spore morphology, but the delimitation of Polyblastia was problematic. Using DNA sequences from nucLSU, and RPB1 the position of the ‘Polyblastia group’, as a strongly supported clade within Verrucariaceae, was confirmed. A three marker phylogeny (including nucITS) based on a wide taxon sampling reveals strongly supported clades within the ‘Polyblastia group’. Thus Polyblastia s.str. is recognized. The phylogeny of the strongly supported Thelidium clade is not completely resolved. In a different clade, Verrucaria rupestris, the type of Verrucaria, is a sister to the Henrica melaspora/H. theleodes clade. Trimmatothele perquisita, the type of Trimmatothele, forms a strongly supported group with a Verrucaria species. The genus Sporodictyon, until recently included in Polyblastia, is resurrected. Species delimitation in Sporodictyon is investigated, and the morphological variation within and between the monophyletic groups is evaluated in an effort to reconcile morphological and molecular data. A taxonomic revision of Sporodictyon, occurring in Northern Europe and the adjacent Arctic is provided, and two new species are described. A comprehensive material is investigated, a key to the species is provided. A generic revision of the family Verrucariaceae, based on recent molecular phylogenetic analyses and previous morphological studies, is offered. Three new genera (Hydropunctaria, Parabagliettoa and Wahlenbergiella) are proposed. Several other monophyletic groups are identified for which the taxon sampling is insufficient for proposing taxonomic changes. The nomenclature of the genera in the family is revised, including the study of type materials and several lectotypifications are suggested. The new genus Atla (Verrucariaceae) is described, and three new species to science, A. alpina, A. palicei and A. praetermissa, are included. An identification key to the species and a revision of the genus is supplied.

No description available.

This thesis work describes how to apply the stochastic analysis framework, presented in [1] for general priority-driven periodic real-time systems. The proposed framework is applicable to compute the response time distribution, the worst-case response time, and the deadline miss probability of the task under analysis in the fixed-priority driven scheduling system. To be specific, we modeled the task execution time by using the beta distribution. Moreover, we have evaluated the existing stochastic framework on a wide range of periodic systems with the help of defined evaluation parameters. In addition we have refined the notations used in system model and also developed new mathematics in order to facilitate the understanding with the concept. We have also introduced new concepts to obtain and validate the exact probabilistic task response time distribution.    Another contribution of this thesis is that we have extended the existing system model in order to deal with stochastic release time of a job. Moreover, a new algorithm is developed and validated using our extended framework where the stochastic dependencies exist due to stochastic release time patterns. / This is Second Version of the report. Submitted after few modifications made on the order of Thomas Nolte (Thesis Examiner). / START - Stochastic Real-Time Analysis of Embedded Software Systems

Metro Kaohsiung with high percentage (6-10 %) of poor air quality (PSI>100) has been announced officially by Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) as the worst air quality region among seven Air Quality Zones (AQZ) in Taiwan. Ozone is one of two major air pollutants that are responsible for the poor air quality. In this study, the vertical concentration profiles of ozone and its precursors (NOX and VOCs) at eight sites were measured by tethered balloons with air pumps and tedlar sampling bags. This method was used to investigate the vertical profile and the tempospatial distribution of ozone and its precursors in offshore/inland regions. This study further investigated ozone formation mechanism and air mass trajectory via simultaneous air quality sampling around the coastal region of metro Kaohsiung. This study sampled the vertical concentration profiles of ozone and its precursors at both inland and offshore sites during eight intensive sampling periods on August 16-17 and November 2-3, 2006, January 24-25, March 6-7 and May 2-3, 2007, October 30-31, 2008, and March 11-12 and July 15-16, 2009. Eight sampling periods were divided into the sea-land breeze period, the northeast monsoon period, and the mixing wind field period. During the sea-land breeze period, the wind direction changed 90˚ and more between daytime and nighttime, and the wind speeds of the sea breezes varied significantly than those of the land breezes. During the northeast monsoon period, prevailing wind blew from the north (300~60˚) with the average wind speeds of 1~4 m/s. During the mixing wind field period, the wind direction varied significantly from 270˚ to 90˚ with the average wind speeds of 1~3 m/s. Results obtained from the vertical profiles showed that O3 concentration appeared stratification phenomenon at 40 out of 64 sampling sites, in which its precursors (NOX or VOCs) demonstrated stratification phenomenon at 30 sampling sites, accounting for 75 % of total O3 stratification. It suggested that ozone and its precursors had strong correlation with each other. The linear slope of the titration effect showed that the intensity of titration effect at night during the northeast monsoon period was larger and had higher correlation (R> 0.7), and followed by the mixing wind field period and the sea-land breeze period. This phenomenon correlated closely with meteorological conditions, the concentrations of O3 precursors, and solar radiation intensity. Therefore, O3 concentration at night during the northeast monsoon period was lower than those of the sea-land breeze period. Results obtained from VOCs measurement indicated that the major species of VOCs was acetone which accounted for 16.25~64.05 % of total TVOCs-C2 in the offshore region. High concentration of TVOCs-C2 was affected by the usage of organic solvents. While, the major species of VOCs in the inland region was toluene which accounted for 6.41~43.77 % of total TVOCs-C2. Furthermore, results obtained from backward trajectory showed that air pollutants emited from land sources could transport to the offshore region, resulting in high concentration of oversea NOX and VOCs. Major species of VOCs for high O3 formation potential were aromatics and vinyls at the height of 0~500 m around the coastal region of metro Kaohsiung. The control of O3 precursors concentration showed that the ratio of [TVOCs-C2]/[NOX] in the offshore region was higher, indicating that O3 formation was NOX-limited. Therefore, NOX must be controlled for reducing O3 formation. However, the ratio of [TVOCs-C2]/[NOX] in the inland region was lower, some cases even below 4, showing that O3 formation was VOCs-limited. Thus, VOCs must be controlled for reducing O3 formation.

This thesis is to develop a novel polishing tool system fitted for convex and concave symmetrical surface of combined surface. There are two design goals in this system. First, this system can be used to polish a concave or convex cone surface with various dimensions and angle cones by adjusting its geometric feature of structure. Second, this polishing tool is expected to have high life expectancy in real applications. Because of the advantages, an efficiency and controllable polishing system would be developed.An inference process, based on a top-down planning strategy, was used to obtain the concept design of polishing tool. There are two major parts in the structure of polishing tool system. The first one is its elastic structure. Both its geometric configuration and loading applied at work are adjustable. The second one is the polishing tool of cylindrical shape. With this specific geometric feature, the effect of tool wear on polishing rate is minimized. The finite element method was adopted to analyze the deformation characteristics of the elastic structure. Accordingly, an optimal design about the shape and dimension of elastic structure was determined. The experimental study showed that the developed polishing system had the property of high repeatability in machining rate. It was also demonstrated that the machining rate of system was insensitive to the tool wear during the polishing process. This advantage may allow this system to gain significant benefit in reducing the need of tool replacement. Finally, it was shown that the experimental trends of machining rate due to the change of applied load or polishing speed followed that of cylindrical polishing system. Both of them can be properly predicted based on the lubricating theories.

In this study, optical and electrochemical properties of regioregular and soluble alkyl substituted propylenedioxyselenophene based electrochromic polymers, namely poly(3,3-dibutyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-selenopheno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxephine) (PProDOS-C4), poly(3,3-dihexyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-selenopheno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxephine) (PProDOS-C6), and poly(3,3-didecyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-selenopheno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxephine) (PProDOS-C10), which were synthesized via electrochemical polymerization, were investigated. It is noted that these unique polymers have low band gaps (1.54 &ndash / 1.64 eV) and they are exceptionally stable under ambient atmospheric conditions. For example, polymer films retained 84-96 % of their electroactivity after five thousands cycles. The percent transmittance of PProDOS-Cn (n= 4, 6, 10) films found to be between 55-59 %. Furthermore, these novel soluble PProDOS-Cn polymers showed electrochromic behavior: a color change form pure blue (L = 57.31, a = -13.18, b = - 42.68) to highly transparent state (L = 91.74, a = 2.52, b = -1.30) state in a low switching time (1.0 s) during oxidation with high coloration efficiencies (328 &ndash / 864 cm2/C) when compared to their close analogues.

In this research the problem of incident congestion on surface street networks is addressed. Microscopic simulation is used to simulate incident scenarios on various corridors in the Tampa Bay area. The effect of the three factors, namely, network, speed and signal strategies on the traffic flow is studied. The network performance is based on Highway Capacity Manual specified measures of effectiveness prepared by the Transportation Research Board. Three inherently different city corridors, high, medium and low volume, are used to test the strategies developed. The strategies investigated include varying speed limits during incidents and using pre-timed and semi-actuated signals that respond to real time traffic volumes. The effectiveness measures are total delay in vehicle minutes, average speed in miles per hour and average travel time in seconds. Different facilities on a network include intersections; both signalized and unsignalized, local highways and arterials. The outputs from the simulation model is used to set up a factorial design to study the interaction between network type, signal strategy and speed strategy with the measures of effectiveness being the response variables. This type of corridor analysis is unique and provides decision support for local transportation planning departments for making corridor enhancements. In most city, state or county planning departments road planning is merely based on projected traffic demand using existing static models and does not factor necessary adjustments for incidents. Another unique aspect of this research is that variable speed limits are tested on surface streets. Such a test is not available in the literature. With dynamic message signs, next generation communication networks for traffic signal control and ITS technologies available, it is possible to implement the strategies suggested in this research.

La précarité est une dimension plus vaste que la pauvreté atteignant presque 15 % de la population française. Les personnes précaires ont plus de risques de développer certaines pathologies, dont des pathologies liées à l’alimentation, le diabète. Une étude d’intervention randomisée a été réalisée auprès d’une population de personnes précaires sur une durée de 12 mois. Les volontaires recevaient des conseils diététiques et/ou des chèques afin de favoriser la consommation de fruits et légumes. D’une consommation initiale d’environ 2,5 portions par jour, avec 30 % de sujets consommant en moyenne moins d’un fruit et légume par jour, l’augmentation moyenne est de 0,7 portions de fruits et légumes par jour, identique dans les deux groupes. Les chèques ont permis une diminution significative du pourcentage de très petits consommateurs. L’impact de la précarité a également été évalué chez des patients diabétiques au cours de trois études transversales. La précarité s’associe à un risque de déséquilibre glycémique et secondairement de rétinopathie, mais sans lien démontré entre la précarité et le stade d’une rétinopathie diabétique. L’une de ces études suggère un lien entre la précarité et le risque de néphropathie diabétique, et démontre une moins bonne qualité de vie des patients. Ces travaux soulèvent des questions sur les multiples freins à une alimentation saine ou à une prise en charge de la maladie pour des personnes précaires et orientent vers des perspectives : cibler les populations, envisager des éducations répétées et il doit être aussi possible de faire mieux avec les mêmes moyens. / Insecurity is a broader dimension of poverty reaching almost 15% of the French population. Insecure people are most at risk of developing various diseases, including diseases related to diet, and diabetes. A randomized intervention study was conducted among deprived volunteers on a period of 12 months. The volunteers were given dietary advice and/or vouchers exchangeable for fresh fruit and vegetables in order to promote their consumption. The baseline consumption was about 2.5 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, with 30% of non daily consumers. The average increase was 0.7 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, in both groups. Vouchers led to a significant decrease in very small consumers. The impact of deprivation has also been evaluated in diabetic patients in three cross-sectional studies. Insecurity was associated with a risk of poor glycemic control and secondarily with retinopathy, but no proven link between deprivation and the stage of diabetic retinopathy. One of these studies suggested a link between insecurity and the risk of diabetic nephropathy. Moreover, deprived patients with diabetes suffer lower quality of life.These studies raise questions about the multiple barriers to a healthy diet or a treatment of chronic disease for deprived people. This is part of the wider reflexion on how to treat these populations, by considering intensified repeated educational programs, and by improving existing approaches.

Many transportation systems used today are costly, slow, fragmented, and dangerous. This paper explores the inefficiencies and negative impacts associated with our current transportation systems. Simple to technologically advanced solutions are explored along with how to integrate these methods for all users in a sustainable fashion. The vision proposes a blend of scientific method, technological advancement, and common sense which is environmentally aware and integrated for all users by using the Dutch Regional and Sustainable Traffic Management Process. / text

The increase in vehicular traffic has created new challenges in determining the behavior of performance of data and safety measures in traffic. Hence, traffic signals on intersection used as cost effective and time saving tools for traffic management in urban areas. But on the other hand the signalized intersections in congested urban areas are the key source of high traffic density and slow traffic. High traffic density causes the slow network traffic data rate between vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure. To match up with the emerging technologies, LTE takes the lead with good packet delivery and versatile to changes in the network due to vehicular movements and density. This thesis is about analyzing of LTE implementation based on a road traffic density model. This thesis work is aimed to use probability distribution function to calculate density values and develop a real traffic scenario in LTE network using density values. In order to analyze the traffic behavior, Aimsun simulator software has been used to represent the real situation of traffic density on a model intersection. For a realistic traffic density model field measurement were used for collection of input data. After calibration and validation process, a close to realty results extracted and used a logistic curve of probability distribution function to find out the density situation on each part of intersection. Similar traffic scenarios were implemented on MATLAB based LTE system level simulator. Results were concluded with the whole traffic scenario of 90 seconds and calculating the throughput at every traffic signal time and section. It is quite evident from the results that LTE system adopts the change of traffic behavior with dynamic nature and allocates more bandwidth where it is more needed.