This study aims to investigate tectonic activity levels and development stages of the tectonic and hydrologic basin areas located on western part of the main trace of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) using quantitative measurement techniques. The basins investigated are Bolu, Yeni&ccedil / aga, D&ouml / rtdivan, &Ccedil / erkes, Ilgaz and Tosya. The methodology includes application of six morphometric indices (Basin Shape, Hypsometric curve and Hypsometric Integral, Sinuosity of Mountain Fronts, Stream Length Gradient Index, Valley width to height ratio, and Asymmetry Factor) to Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the region generated from 1:25000 scale topographic maps. The analyses indicate that the basins located in the study area have different characteristics of tectonic activity. According to the results of the applied indices relative order of the activity for tectonic basins is, in decreasing order, Bolu, Tosya, Ilgaz, &Ccedil / erkes, Yeni&ccedil / aga and D&ouml / rtdivan. For hydrologic basins, on the other hand, the same order is observed except for a swap in &Ccedil / erkes and Yeni&ccedil / aga basins. Among the basins located to the north of the NAFZ, the activity decreases eastward whereas to the south the fault zone it decreases towards the west.

This study aimed to investigate the activity change of the sludge in a bioreactor after the addition of industrial wastewater and the influence on water quality of nearby waterway after the entrance of the treated effluent. Furthermore, with respect to the industrial effluent¡¦s direct discharge to the near sea, the investigation of water quality was also undertaken to set up the database of water quality for the related receiving waters and further to provide information useful for the future monitoring and assessing the possible water pollution caused by the Tainan Technology Industrial Park (TTIP). At this present study, the TTIP, which was not at the stage of formal operation, was selected as the research object to investigate the possible adverse effects of the effluent from Hi-tech industries on the environment. In the first part of this study, several techniques for sludge diagnosis were used to evaluate the activity of sludge in various types of wastewaters in order to choose appropriate biological indices to represent the performance of a bioreactor. The results showed that dissolved oxygen was proportional to DHA concentration and number of bacteria. In addition, that both suspended solids (SS) and volatile suspended solids (VSS) had poor correlation with dissolved oxygen led to their failure to be the biological indices. In the second part of this study, the influence on the water quality after the treated wastewater discharged into the nearby receiving waters was investigated. The results of field investigation showed that the effluent did not cause significant negative effects on the receiving waters but positive effects instead due to its lowering the concentrations of water pollutants. Summarily, the effluent emitted from the TTIP had no significant impact on the nearby receiving waters by now. However, in the future, when most of the factories in the park begin to produce products, further studies are required to make sure whether the effluent will cause adverse impact on the nearby water environments.

Pavement smoothness has become a standard measure of pavement quality. Transportation agencies strive to build and maintain smoother pavements. Smooth roads provide comfort while riding, minimize vehicular wear and tear and increase pavement life. A user perceives smoothness of a pavement based on the ride quality, which is severely affected by presence of defects on pavement surface. Defects identified after construction are corrected as per smoothness specifications prescribed by respective transportation agencies. The effectiveness of any method used to determine defect locations depends on the decrease in roughness obtained on correction of defects. Following the above line of thought a method that detects defects by comparing original profile to a smoothened profile will be more effective in identifying defect locations that cause roughness in pavements. This research report proposes a methodology to detect defect locations on pavement surface using profile data collected on pavements. The approach presents a method of obtaining a smoothened profile from the original profile to help identify defect locations based on deviations of the original profile from the smoothened one. Defect areas will have a higher deviation from the smoothened profile as compared to smooth areas. The verification of the defects identified by this approach is carried out by determining the decrease in roughness after removal of the identified defects from profile. A roughness statistic is used to do the same. The approach is illustrated using profile data collected on in-service pavement sections.

The main purpose of this study is to develop indices of the core competence for undergraduates in Taiwan and to explore the status quo of Taiwanese undergraduates¡¦ basic competence. Questionnaire survey was conducted in this research and based on The Indices of Undergraduates¡¦ Core Competence Scale. The scales in the study consist of 6 subscales of Basic & Professional Abilities, Creativity & Problem-solving Capability, Interpersonal Communication Skill, Moral & Civic Literacy, International Visions and Self-directed Learning to explore the important competence and literacy and the possessed competence and literacy. There were totally 642 subjects of three groups, including 113 superintendents, 116 professors, and 413 undergraduates. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, one-way MANOVA, and Rasch analysis. The results indicated: (a) each subscale of each scale had reasonable Cronbach £\ ranging from .77 to .97 and the overall model fit statistics indicated that model fitted the observed data; (b) all subjects considered that undergraduates¡¦ competence was above average on the dimensions of the important competence and the possessed competence, except that the professor group considered that undergraduates¡¦ competence did not achieve average level on Creativity & Problem-solving Capability, International Visions, and Self-directed Learning of Possessed Competence and Literacy; (c) there were significant differences in different classes of superintendents, different genders and different grades of the undergraduates on Important Competence and Literacy for Undergraduates; (d) the items of important and not possessed considered by superintendents and professors were ¡§problem-solving skills,¡¨ ¡§wide visions,¡¨ ¡§foreign language skills,¡¨ ¡§setting learning goals and strategies,¡¨ ¡§evaluating learning achievements,¡¨ ¡§critical thinking skills,¡¨ ¡§managing learning environment,¡¨ and ¡§keen perception,¡¨ and the items of important and not possessed considered by undergraduates were ¡§foreign language skills,¡¨ ¡§making use of learning resource,¡¨ ¡§professional erudition,¡¨ ¡§capacity of logic analysis,¡¨ ¡§reflecting the effects of learning.¡¨ Suggestions were proposed as reference for college education policies, general courses, and future studies.

<p>Detta examensarbete beskriver hur en Monte Carlo simulering (MCS) kan användas för tillförlitlighetsanalys av ett eldistributionssystem. Metoden har implementerats i verktyget RADPOW som nu kan utföra både analytiska och numeriska beräkningar. Angreppssättet för att utveckla denna MCS metod i RADPOW innefattade följande aktiviteter:</p><p>• Vidareutvecklade av RADPOW med införandet av ett grafiskt användargränssnitt för Windows.</p><p>• Utveckling och implementering av en iterativ analytisk metod för känslighetsanalys av eldistributionssystem i RADPOW.</p><p>• Utveckling och implementering av MCS metoden i RADPOW, vilken placerades i en fristående modul kallad Sim.</p><p>Den implementerade MCS metoden har validerats i en jämförande studie innefattande två testsystem med datorprogrammet NEPLAN. Resultat från denna studie visar att MCS metoden ger samma resultat som den analytiska metoden i RADPOW och det kommersiella verktyget NEPLAN.</p> / <p>This master thesis describes an implementation of a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) method for reliability assessment of electrical distribution systems. The method has been implemented in the reliability assessment tool RADPOW which now is able to perform both analytical and simulation evaluations. The main contributions within this thesis includes the following activities;</p><p>• Further development of RADPOW by the introducing of a graphical user interface for Windows.</p><p>• Development and implementation of an analytical sensitivity analysis routine for RADPOW.</p><p>• Development and implementation of a sequential MCS method in RADPOW in a stand alone module referred to as Sim.</p><p>The implemented MCS method has been validated in a comparable study for two case systems by a commercial software NEPLAN. Results shows that the implemented MCS method provides the same results as the analytical method in RADPOW and the NEPLAN software.</p>

La synthèse de lois de commande efficaces apparaît comme un enjeu important dans la réalisation autonome de tâches de navigation robotiques. Ce problème peut être abordé par différentes approches. L'une d'entre elles, la commande référencée capteur, permet de définir les boucles de commande directement à partir des mesures sensorielles au lieu de les exprimer en fonction de l'état du robot. Dans ce contexte, du fait de la richesse du signal vidéo, la vision apparaît comme un capteur privilégié pour la réalisation de tâches très variées de manière précise. Cependant, la commande référencée vision reposant sur la seule régulation des indices visuels dans l'image s'avère mal adaptée pour réaliser des tâches de navigation complexes dans des environnements encombrés d'obstacles. En effet, dans ce cas, il est nécessaire de garantir d'une part la sécurité du robot, et d'autre part la disponibilité permanente des indices visuels dans l'image. Ce sont précisément ces problèmes que nous avons voulu étudier dans le cadre de cette thèse. Notre contribution a consisté à définir des stratégies de commande référencées multi-capteurs pour un robot mobile réalisant une tâche référencée vision dans un environnement encombré d'obstacles susceptibles d'occulter le motif visuel. Nous avons tout d'abord proposé des lois de commandes permettant d'éviter à la fois les occultations et les collisions. Toutefois, les résultats obtenus ont montré que chercher à éviter simultanément ces deux phénomènes surcontraignait le mouvement du robot, limitant la gamme des missions réalisables. Nous avons alors développé une seconde approche consistant à tolérer temporairement la perte du signal visuel. Celle-ci repose sur l'exploitation de la réversibilité du lien vision/mouvement exprimé par le torseur d'interaction. Nous avons ainsi proposé dans un cadre général plusieurs méthodes (analytiques et numériques) de reconstruction du signal visuel lorsqu'il devient indisponible. Nous avons ensuite validé ch acune de ces méthodes dans le cas de la réalisation d'une tâche de navigation référencée vision dans un milieu encombré d'obstacles. Nous avons également montré l'intérêt de nos approches lorsque la caméra présente un défaut de fonctionnement pendant l'exécution d'une mission.

L'immobilier se financiarise. L'époque où ce secteur n'était pas considéré comme une<br />classe d'actifs à part entière est révolue. Mais une fois que l'on a pris acte de cet état de<br />fait, la question est de savoir comment travailler avec cet actif récalcitrant, hétérogène et<br />illiquide. Les indices immobiliers fournissent des éléments de réponse ; notamment pour<br />la gestion de portefeuille, la gestion des risques avec les produits dérivés et la gestion des<br />prêts immobiliers. Dans cette thèse nous développons et nous approfondissons la<br />structure de l'indice de ventes répétées de Case et Shiller en la rendant plus interprétable<br />financièrement, plus maniable et plus intuitive. Nous étudions ainsi le lien fonctionnel<br />entre les indices de prix et l'indice de ventes répétées. Nous présentons une méthodologie<br />d'analyse de données qui, grâce à divers indicateurs, assure une exploitation de<br />l'information enchâssée dans les échantillons bien supérieure à celle que l'on obtient en<br />se contentant d'utiliser la procédure traditionnelle. Nous étudions la fiabilité de l'indice,<br />sa volatilité et le problème des deux populations. Un procédé de quantification du<br />phénomène de réversibilité est aussi développé et des éléments pour l'évaluation des<br />produits dérivés sur indices immobiliers sont présentés. Enfin, cette problématique<br />aboutira à l'introduction du concept d'indice informationnel et l'on posera la question<br />centrale pour toute construction d'indice : Comment quantifier l'information ?

Safety reviews of existing roads are becoming a popular practice of many agencies nationally and internationally. Knowing road safety information is of great importance to both policymakers in addressing safety concerns and travelers in managing their trips. There have been various efforts in developing methodologies to measure and assess road safety in an effective manner. However, the existing research and practices are still constrained by their subjective and reactive nature. The goal of this research is to develop a framework of Road Risk Indices (RRIs) to assess road risks of existing highway infrastructure for both road users and agencies based on road geometrics, traffic conditions, and historical crash data. The proposed RRIs are intended to give a comprehensive and objective view of road safety, so that safety problems can be identified at an early stage before they rise in the form of accidents. A methodological framework of formulating RRIs that integrates results from crash prediction models and historical crash data is proposed, and Linear Referencing tools in the ArcGIS software are used to develop digital maps to publish estimated RRIs. These maps provide basic Geographic Information System (GIS) functions, including viewing and querying RRIs, and performing spatial analysis tasks. A semi-parameter count model and quantile regression based estimation are proposed to capture the specific characteristics of crash data and provide more robust and accurate predictions on crash counts. Crash data collected on Interstate Highways in Washington State for the year 2002 was extracted from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) and used for the case study. The results from the case study show that the proposed framework is capable of capturing statistical correlations between traffic crashes and influencing factors, leading to the effective integration of safety information in composite indices. / text

Blooms of nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria (NFC) occur in many freshwater and marine systems, including the Baltic Sea. By fixing dissolved nitrogen, they circumvent general summer nitrogen limitation, while also generating a supply of novel bioavailable nitrogen for non-diazotrophic primary producers and ultimately supporting secondary production. Elucidating trophic links between primary consumers and NFC is essential for understanding role of these blooms for secondary production. However, until recently, there was no reliable method to quantify individual prey species for zooplankter feeding in situ. The development of PCR-based methods to detect prey-specific DNA in the diet of consumers, including microscopic animals, allows identification and quantification of trophic linkages in the field. Using molecular diet analysis in combination with egg production measurements, biochemical markers of growth and condition; and stable isotope approach, we explored a possibility to determine (1) whether cyanobacteria are grazed and assimilated by mesozooplankters (Papers I and II), (2) which species/groups are particularly efficient consumers of cyanobacteria (Papers II and III), and (3) how feeding on cyanobacteria affects zooplankton growth and development (Paper I and III). Taken together, these laboratory and field observations, provided evidence that NFC contribute to feeding and reproduction of zooplankton during summer and create a favorable growth environment for the copepod nauplii (Paper I). The favorable growth conditions for juvenile copepods observed during NFC blooms were hypothesized to be mediated by picoplankton that take up bioavailable nitrogen exuded from cyanobacterial cells. This hypothesis found support in Paper II that provided quantitative estimates for the direct picocyanobacteria → mesozooplankton pathway, with highest weight-specific consumption observed in nauplii. Further, using field observations on zooplankton and phytoplankton development during a growth season in the northern Baltic proper, we found that NFC nitrogen is assimilated and transferred to zooplankton via both direct grazing and indirectly through grazing on small-sized phyto- and bacterioplankton (Paper III). Finally, these and other findings emphasizing the importance of NFC for Baltic Sea secondary production during growth season were synthesized to show that diazotrophic nitrogen enters food webs already at bloom initiation (Paper III) and is transferred via multiple pathways to pelagic and benthic food webs and, ultimately, to fish (Paper IV). / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Accepted.</p>

Οι πράσινοι καρποί φέρουν ενεργούς χλωροπλάστες, οι οποίοι επιτελούν φωτοσύνθεση και αναπτύσσονται σε ένα ιδιαίτερο μικροπεριβάλλον, που διαφέρει σημαντικά από αυτό των φύλλων. Συγκεκριμένα, χαρακτηρίζεται από υποξία, πολύ υψηλές συγκεντρώσεις CO2 και χαμηλές εντάσεις φωτός, ιδιαίτερα στα εσώτερα σημεία του καρπού. Οι συνθήκες αυτές διαμορφώνονται από τα ανατομικά χαρακτηριστικά των καρπών και από τον υψηλό μεταβολικό ρυθμό που επιδεικνύουν. Τα ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά του εσωτερικού του καρπού επηρεάζουν αντίστοιχα τα επίπεδα των συνολικών χλωροφυλλών (Chla+b) και τις σχετικές αναλογίες των φωτοσυνθετικών χρωστικών του (Chla/b, Car/Chla+b). Στην παρούσα εργασία, το ενδιαφέρον μας εστιάζεται στη μελέτη των φωτοσυνθετικών χρωστικών των καρπών και στη σύγκριση του προτύπου που διαμορφώνεται μεταξύ φύλλων, περικαρπίων και σπερμάτων, σε όσο το δυνατόν περισσότερα φυτικά είδη. Για τον σκοπό αυτό επιλέξαμε να αξιοποιήσουμε τους αντίστοιχους δείκτες της in vivo ανακλαστικότητας (NDI, δείκτης Chla/b και PRI) ως μια γρήγορη, ευαίσθητη και μη καταστρεπτική μέθοδο εκτίμησης των φωτοσυνθετικών χρωστικών. Παράλληλα, θέλοντας να ελέγξουμε την αξιοπιστία των ανωτέρω δεικτών ανακλαστικότητας και στους καρπούς, προσδιορίσαμε τα επίπεδα των φωτοσυνθετικών χρωστικών και των σχετικών αναλογιών τους και με την παραδοσιακή μέθοδο της εκχύλισης-φασματοφωτομέτρησης. Τα αποτελέσματά μας έδειξαν ότι σε όλες τις περιπτώσεις, τα περικάρπια περιέχουν σαφώς λιγότερες συνολικές χλωροφύλλες και ακολουθούν τα σπέρματα με ακόμα λιγότερες. Η σχετική αναλογία Chla/b είναι χαμηλότερη στα περικάρπια και τα σπέρματα έναντι των φύλλων, γεγονός που μπορεί εν μέρει να ερμηνευθεί ως σκιόφιλη προσαρμογή (περίπτωση σπερμάτων). Ωστόσο, οι εξωτερικές (πλήρως φωτιζόμενες) και οι εσωτερικές (σκιαζόμενες) πλευρές των περικαρπίων εμφανίζουν ίδια επίπεδα του λόγου Chla/b στα περισσότερα είδη που μελετήθηκαν. Αυτό μας υποδεικνύει ότι, ενδεχομένως, άλλοι παράγοντες πέραν του φωτός επηρεάζουν τη σχετική αναλογία των δύο χλωροφυλλών. Επιπρόσθετα, παρατηρήθηκε μη αναμενόμενη, αυξημένη σχετική αναλογία των συνολικών καροτενοειδών σε σχέση με τις συνολικές χλωροφύλλες (Car/Chla+b) των περικαρπίων και των σπερμάτων έναντι των αντίστοιχων φύλλων, εύρημα που χρήζει επίσης περαιτέρω μελέτης. / Green fruits contain active chloroplasts, which are driving the reactions of photosynthesis and function in a particular microenvironment, completely different from that of leaves. This microenvironment is characterized by hypoxia, extremely high internal CO2 concentrations and low light intensity, especially in the inner part of the fruit. The above conditions are shaped by fruit anatomical features and their high metabolic rhythm. The special characteristics of the fruit’s internal affect the total chlorophyll concentration (Chla+b), the ratio of Chla to Chlb (Chla/b) and the carotenoid to chlorophylls ratio (Car/Chla+b). In this study, the photosynthetic pigment profile of green fruits (pericarps and seeds) of 15 different species was investigated, with the corresponding leaves serving as controls. To this aim, the appropriate in vivo spectral reflectance indices (NDI, Chla/b index and PRI) were used, as a rapid, sensitive and non-destructive method for photosynthetic pigment estimation. In order to assess the reliability of the above indices in fruits, we estimated in parallel the photosynthetic pigment levels and their ratios with traditional extracting methods. Our results indicated that compared to leaves, pericarps are characterized by lower levels of total chlorophylls followed by seeds with even lower. The Chla/b ratio is lower in pericarps and seeds. As a consequence the lower Chla/b ratio could only partly be attributed to a shade adaptation. However, the exposed and shaded sides of pericarps displayed similar values for Chla/b ratio in the most of the species tested. Moreover, pericarps and seeds showed unexpectedly, higher carotenoid/chlorophyll ratios.