Public libraries of today consist of both physical and digitalized elements. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how a group of users, senior citizens, relates to the digital parts of the library. An interview study was conducted with nine persons between 67 and 78 years of age, with the aim to better understand their experiences and thoughts on the subject. A more holistic scope is necessary to fully grasp the prerequisites that the senior citizens had to be able to use the digital library. Therefore, the access and use of information- and communication technology (ICT) in everyday life was approached.  The material from the interviews was analyzed through a thematic analysis of the content. The theoretical framework evolved around two models concerning the concepts of information, that is a model of information practices by Pamela J. McKenzie (2003) and a typology of information limits by Marzena Świgoń (2011).  The study concludes that the senior citizens had access to adequate digital equipment at their own disposal. Though the sample consisted of people with varied interest and time spent on ICT, they can all be regarded as participants in the digital arena. When the interviewees searched for digital content of interest, they described mostly active methods in searching and scanning the internet.  In relation to the digital library, reserving books in the digital catalogue and borrowing digital media was the functions most frequently used. For some, these where new practices that they had developed during the pandemic of covid-19. They often turned to other sources to seek digital support or develop digital skills. Information about the library was to a higher extent sought of using traditional sources and methods.  Overall, though perceived as useful in facilitating reading, the digital library appeared to play a peripheral role in the senior citizens’ information practices in their everyday life. However there seems to be a potential in further marketing the existing digital functions to the target group. In doing so hopefully the digital library can benefit senior citizens, both the digital active and beginners, to a higher extent.  This is a two years master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

The objective of the presented diploma thesis is reduction of nitrogen oxides from the flue gas stream on catalyst under non-standart conditions. Emphasis is places on the description of selected pollutants in flue gas (especially nitrogen oxides), legislative requirements for air protection and technologies for removal of nitrogen oxides, expecially methods of selective catalytic and non-catalytic reduction. The practical part is devoted to the reduction of nitrogen oxides by selective catalytic reduction on a pilot plant INTEQ II in the laboratory NETME Center. The subject of interest is the determination of the NOx reduction efficiency depend on the temperature for selected catalyst. The end of the practical part pursues with comparison of measurement results and their evaluation.

The main scope of thesis is to describe the pollutant removal techniques with a focus on heavy metals. With that relate chapters describing the formation of pollutants and their effect on human health. The thesis focuses on a detailed description of flue gas cleaning technology and its evaluation. Evaluation is shown in tables comparing emission measurement on waste incineration plant SAKO Brno, a.s. with emission limits. The thesis also briefly describes other options for municipal waste management.

This diploma thesis deals with the normative requirements on the activities of restraint systems. It includes biomechanical limits of the human body, restraint systems, description of the principle of their action and legislation. Legislation, particularly regulations of ECE and EC directives defines the normative requirements on the activity of restraint systems in the context of the approval process. There are described two types of restraint systems: seat belts and airbags in details. There are created simulations of crashtests and reviewed influence of using restraint systems on elimination of negative phenomenon of car accidents.

Orientador: Silvia Regina Quijdas Aro Zuliani / Resumo: Esta tese se propõe a analisar, a partir da perspectiva de formadores e licenciandos, a formação inicial em licenciatura no curso de Ciências Naturais-Química, da Universidade do Estado do Pará-UEPA, bem como os limites e possibilidades no contexto dessa formação, num campus localizado na microrregião de integração do Araguaia, no sul do Pará, local onde estão inseridos os atores sociais. A pesquisa ancora-se em uma base qualitativa e entre as diferentes abordagens escolheu-se o Estudo de Caso. Como principal instrumento de coleta de dados foi utilizada a entrevista semiestruturada cujos dados foram tratados à luz da análise temática de conteúdo. Os resultados oriundos desse trabalho de campo foram confrontados com os aportes suscitados na discussão através do embasamento da literatura nas teorizações do currículo e os possíveis fatores que podem estar contribuindo para as atuais políticas de currículo, além de adentrar na teoria de Pierre Bourdieu especificamente quanto ao habitus e à violência simbólica. Os resultados obtidos refletem que a estrutura curricular e as condições de funcionamento do curso ainda estão longe de serem suficientes para a formação desejada por licenciandos e formadores. Notou-se um grande desafio tendo em vista as inúmeras limitações que a universidade enfrenta na tentativa de consolidar o curso de Licenciatura em Química, apresentando fragilidades como: infraestrutura, falta de laboratórios, bibliotecas dotadas de literatura específica, a prática a... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This thesis proposes to analyze the initial education in the undergraduate course in Natural Sciences -Chemistry, from the perspective of teachers and undergraduates of Pará State University -UEPA, as well as the limits and possibilities in the context of such education, in a campus located in the Araguaia integration micro-region, in southern Pará, where the social actors are located. The research is anchored on a qualitative basis and among the different approaches was chosen the Case Study. As the main data collection instrument, the semi-structured interview was chosen, in which data were treated in the light of thematic content analysis. The results from this fieldwork were confronted withthe inputs raised in the discussion, by using literature-based theorizations of the curriculum and the possible factors that may be contributing to current curriculum policies, and also by entering Pierre Bourdieu's theory specifically about Habitusand symbolic violence. The results obtained reflect that the curriculum structure and operating conditions of the course are still far from sufficient for the desired education by undergraduates and teachers. A great challenge was noticed in view of thenumerous limitations that the university faces in trying to consolidate the Chemistry Graduation Course, presenting weaknesses such as: infrastructure, lack of laboratories, libraries with specific literature, the active practice of projects that contemplate Education, Research and Extension, d... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Les volontés individuelles évoluent avec le temps, elles sont en lien avec une histoire qui impose sa tonalité propre.Le XXème siècle, avec ses deux guerres mondiales, transforme l’ambiance du Réel et conduit à une mutation de l’agir autour de tendances transgressives et conflictuelles. En figure de proue de ce référentiel changeant, l’écriture polymorphe de Georges Bataille dévoile une philosophie interrogeant le statut des limites et leur légitimité. L’individu comme sujet est celui qui cherche à s’illimiter en allant au sommet des choses dans une métaphysique phénoménologique. Cherchant à repousser les limites, Georges Bataille joue avec la morale, les règles admises et l’agrégat législatif jusqu’à annoncer une économie de la dépense. Tous ses ambitieux projets sont regroupés dans douze volumes d’œuvres complètes qui ont connu un intérêt du côté des spécialistes de littérature, et des curieux. Aujourd’hui, les philosophes et la sociologie parlent du renouveau des limites et des changements de mentalités. Nous allons explorer toutes ces pistes en nous appuyant sur Bataille, ses lecteurs, et leur portée actuelle en nous demandant s’il existe encore des limites réelles à transgresser. / Individual wishes change over times, they’re connected with a specific historical setting.With the two world wars, the XXth century transforms the vibes. It conducts to a changement of the course of action. Sin and transgression are the conflictual elements that transform reality.Georges Bataille is the figurehead of this changing reality. This multiple-writer presents a philosophy questioning limits and their legitimacy. The person is the subject searching to define an unlimited world, thanks to a metaphysic and phenomenological dimension.Georges Bataille is looking to push out the limits: he deals with morality, rules and laws until he announces a saving of expenditure. All of these ambitious projects are gathered in twelve volumes. These books generate some interest for literature specialist, or curious people.Nowadays, philosophers and sociologists talk about the resurgence of the limits caused by the change of attitudes. We will explore these questions using Georges Bataille, his lectors and the influence of thoughts as support. We’re wondering if we could even transgress limits.

L’opérateur du p-Laplacien non local, l’équation d’évolution et la régularisation variationnelle associées régies par un noyau donné ont des applications dans divers domaines de la science et de l’ingénierie. En particulier, ils sont devenus des outils modernes pour le traitement massif des données (y compris les signaux, les images, la géométrie) et dans les tâches d’apprentissage automatique telles que la classification. En pratique, cependant, ces modèles sont implémentés sous forme discrète (en espace et en temps, ou en espace pour la régularisation variationnelle) comme approximation numérique d’un problème continu, où le noyau est remplacé par la matrice d’adjacence d’un graphe. Pourtant, peu de résultats sur la consistence de ces discrétisations sont disponibles. En particulier, il est largement ouvert de déterminer quand les solutions de l’équation d’évolution ou du problème variationnel des tâches basées sur des graphes convergent (dans un sens approprié) à mesure que le nombre de sommets augmente, vers un objet bien défini dans le domaine continu, et si oui, à quelle vitesse. Dans ce manuscrit, nous posons les bases pour aborder ces questions.En combinant des outils de la théorie des graphes, de l’analyse convexe, de la théorie des semi- groupes non linéaires et des équations d’évolution, nous interprétons rigoureusement la limite continue du problème d’évolution et du problème variationnel du p-Laplacien discrets sur graphes. Plus précisé- ment, nous considérons une suite de graphes (déterministes) convergeant vers un objet connu sous le nom de graphon. Si les problèmes d’évolution et variationnel associés au p-Laplacien continu non local sont discrétisés de manière appropriée sur cette suite de graphes, nous montrons que la suite des solutions des problèmes discrets converge vers la solution du problème continu régi par le graphon, lorsque le nombre de sommets tend vers l’infini. Ce faisant, nous fournissons des bornes d’erreur/consistance.Cela permet à son tour d’établir les taux de convergence pour différents modèles de graphes. En parti- culier, nous mettons en exergue le rôle de la géométrie/régularité des graphons. Pour les séquences de graphes aléatoires, en utilisant des inégalités de déviation (concentration), nous fournissons des taux de convergence nonasymptotiques en probabilité et présentons les différents régimes en fonction de p, de la régularité du graphon et des données initiales. / The non-local p-Laplacian operator, the associated evolution equation and variational regularization, governed by a given kernel, have applications in various areas of science and engineering. In particular, they are modern tools for massive data processing (including signals, images, geometry), and machine learning tasks such as classification. In practice, however, these models are implemented in discrete form (in space and time, or in space for variational regularization) as a numerical approximation to a continuous problem, where the kernel is replaced by an adjacency matrix of a graph. Yet, few results on the consistency of these discretization are available. In particular it is largely open to determine when do the solutions of either the evolution equation or the variational problem of graph-based tasks converge (in an appropriate sense), as the number of vertices increases, to a well-defined object in the continuum setting, and if yes, at which rate. In this manuscript, we lay the foundations to address these questions.Combining tools from graph theory, convex analysis, nonlinear semigroup theory and evolution equa- tions, we give a rigorous interpretation to the continuous limit of the discrete nonlocal p-Laplacian evolution and variational problems on graphs. More specifically, we consider a sequence of (determin- istic) graphs converging to a so-called limit object known as the graphon. If the continuous p-Laplacian evolution and variational problems are properly discretized on this graph sequence, we prove that the solutions of the sequence of discrete problems converge to the solution of the continuous problem governed by the graphon, as the number of graph vertices grows to infinity. Along the way, we provide a consistency/error bounds. In turn, this allows to establish the convergence rates for different graph models. In particular, we highlight the role of the graphon geometry/regularity. For random graph se- quences, using sharp deviation inequalities, we deliver nonasymptotic convergence rates in probability and exhibit the different regimes depending on p, the regularity of the graphon and the initial data.

The main goal of the thesis is to identify and explore the possibilities of using corporate tax structures in detail. And, moreover, how it influences corporate income tax and personal income tax with a focus on the partners of these corporate entities. The first part of the thesis represents the theoretical framework, especially the explanation of the basic concepts related to tax corporate structures and the most important limits in their compilation. This section also includes recommendations primarily made by the OECD to remove parts of the legislation that allows the transfer of profits between entities or to fill gaps in this legislation that allows the use of tax relief in unjustified cases. The thesis also contains the current legislation of the European Union and the Czech Republic regarding tax policy. The first part of the thesis in the above context is processed in chapters 1 to 5. In the second part, starting from chapter 6, I analyse the adjustment of the corporate structure of the Amazon group and I make suggestions for possible methods of establishing transfer prices for transactions carried out within this group in the Czech Republic. In this section of the thesis I also compare the possible effects on the tax burden in the case of a differently set corporate structure of the...

Driving a vehicle is considered a demanding task in a complex dynamic environment. For instance, driving a vehicle on urban roads, where motorized vehicles meet vulnerable road users (VRUs) creates a multifaceted environment with difficult trade-offs and interactions. Additionally, in-vehicle technology developments are being introduced to ease drivers with the driving task. However, these developments are changing “traditional” driving increasing drivers’ response in terms of information processing, thus making the driving task more demanding in some respects. Therefore, the aim of the present research is to further investigate drivers’ speed choice under varying traffic management regulations and in-vehicle warning systems. / <p>QC 20131114</p> / New Speed Limits in Built-Up Areas / COOPERS

The rise of disruptive technologies and the rapid growth of innovative initiatives have led to a trend of decentralization, deregulation, and distribution of regulated/centralized services. As a result, there is an increasing number of requests for the connection of distributed generators to distribution networks and the need for power utilities to quickly assess the impacts of distributed generators (DGs) to keep up with these requests. Grid integration of DGs brings about protection issues. Current protection systems were not designed for bi-directional power flow, thus the protective devices in the network lose their ability to perform their main functions. To mitigate the impact of distributed generation (DG), some standards and policies constrain the number of DG that can be connected to the distribution network. The problem with these limits is that they are based only on overload and overvoltage, and do not adequately define the DG size/threshold before the occurrence of a protection issue (NRS 097-2-3). The other problem with distributed generation is the vast difference in the technology, location, size, connection sequence, and protection scheme requirements which results in future DG network planning inadequacies – The Network DG Planning Dilemma. To determine the amount of DG to connect to the network, a detailed analysis is required which often involves the use of a simulation tool such as DIgSILENT to model the entire network and perform load flow studies. Modelling networks on DIgSILENT is relatively easy for simple networks but becomes time-consuming for complex, large, and real networks. This brings about a limitation to this method, planning inadequacies, and longer connection approval periods. Thus, there is a need for a fast but accurate system-wide tool that can assess the amount of DG that can be connected to a network. This research aims to present a technique used for calculating protection-based DG penetration limits on MV networks and develop a model to determine medium voltage opportunity network maps. These maps indicate the maximum amount of DG that can be connected to a network without the need for major protection scheme changes in South Africa. The approach to determining protection-based penetration limits is based on supervised machine learning methods. The aim is to rely on protection features present in the distribution network data i.e. fault level, Inverse Definite Minimum Time (IDMT) curve, pick-up current settings, Time Multiplier Settings (TMS), calculated relay operating times and relay positions to see how the network responds at certain DG penetration levels (‘actual' relay operating times). The dataset represents carefully anonymized distribution networks with accepted protection philosophy applied. A supervised machine learning algorithm is applied after nontrivial data pre-processing through recommendation systems and shuffling. The planning dilemma is cast into three parts: the first part is an automated pattern classification (logistic regression for classification of protection miscoordination), the second part involves regression (predicting operating time after different levels of DG penetration), and the last part involves developing a recommendation system (where, when and how much photovoltaic (PV) DG will be connected). Gradient descent, which is an optimisation algorithm that iterates and finds optimal values of the parameters that correspond to the local or global minimum values of the cost function using calculus was used to measure the accuracy of each model's hypothesis function. The cost function (one half mean squared error) for the models that predict ‘actual' relay operating times before DG penetration, at 35%, 65%, and 75% DG penetration converged to values below 120, 20, 15, and 15 seconds2 , respectively, within the first 100 iterations. A high variance problem was observed (cross-validation error was high and training error was low) for the models that used all the network protection features as inputs. The cross-validation and training errors approached the desired performance of 0.3±0.1 for the models that had second-order polynomials added. A training accuracy of 91.30%, 73.91%, 82.61%, and a validation accuracy of 100%, 55.56%, 66.67% was achieved when classifying loss of coordination, loss of grading and desensitization, respectively. A high bias problem was observed (cross-validation error was high and training error was high) for the loss of grading classification (relay positions eliminated) model. When the models (horizontal network features) were applied to four MV distribution networks, loss of coordination was not predicted, the loss of grading model had one false positive and the de-sensitization model had one false negative. However, when the results were compared to the vertical analysis (comparing the operating times of upstream and downstream relays/reclosers), 28 points indicated a loss of coordination (2 at 35%, 1 at 65% and 25 at 75% DG penetration). Protection coordination reinforcements (against loss of grading and desensitization) were found to be a requirement for DG connections where the MV transformer circuit breaker TMS is between 0.5 and 1.1, and where the network fault level is between 650 and 800A. Distribution networks in affluent neighbourhoods similar to those around the Western CapeSomerset West area and Gauteng- Centurion area need to be reinforced to accommodate maximum DG penetration up to the limit of 75% of the After Diversity Maximum Demand (ADMD). For future work, the collection of more data points (results from detailed analytical studies on the impact of DG on MV feeders) to use as training data to solve the observed high variance problem is recommended. Also, modifying the model by adding upstream and downstream network features as inputs in the classification model to solve the high bias problem is recommended.