Beavers were virtually extirpated from North America during the fur trade, but populations have since recovered. Dams built by recolonizing beaver alter stream habitat by forming deep, slow ponds within the streams. Such changes to the habitat is likely to have consequences for organisms such as macroinvertebrates and fish. The objective of this study was to identify the differences in the macroinvertebrate and trout community in beaver ponds and lotic (e.g. flowing reaches of a stream) reaches in tributaries to the Logan River in northeastern Utah. The macroinvertebrate community of beaver ponds had fewer species, fewer numbers, and lower biomass of macroinvertebrates compared to lotic reaches. Macroinvertebrates that consume leaf litter and predators that prey on other macroinvertebrates characterized beaver pond macroinvertebrate communities. In contrast, lotic reaches contained macroinvertebrates that consume algae and feed on particles floating through the water column. Macroinvertebrates in lotic reaches were morphologically adapted to cling to rocks in the streamflow, while those in beaver ponds were adapted to living within the fine sediment. Bonneville cutthroat trout collected from lotic reaches were larger than those collected from beaver ponds, while the opposite was true for brown trout collected from lotic reaches. I also found that short-term and long-term diets of both brown trout and Bonneville cutthroat trout were similar between trout caught in beaver pond and lotic reaches. Finally, I found that growth rates of trout were also similar between the two habitats. In conclusion, the structure and function of macroinvertebrates, which are dependent on small-scale habitat features, were more affected by inclusion of beaver ponds to the stream network. Conversely, trout collected from beaver ponds and lotic regions were similar in growth and diet. Considering that beavers are used as a common restoration tool, further studies on the effects of beaver on stream communities is essential.

L'objectif général de cette thèse est d'étudier les mécanismes de transport des déchets marins flottants ainsi queleur accumulation potentielle en Méditerranée, en s'appuyant sur la modélisation numérique de leur dérive ainsique sur des observations in-situ de leur distribution. La dynamique du transport des déchets marins y estnotamment analysée en terme d'échelles caractéristiques du bassin, en partant de la grande échelle jusqu'auxéchelles côtière et littorale.Dans un premier temps, l'examen d'un ensemble d'expériences Lagrangiennes numériques a permis d'identifierdans le bassin des zones probables d'accumulation non permanentes à grande échelle (Mansui et al., 2015a).L'impact à l'échelle côtière d'un courant de bord (Courant Nord) et des forçages atmosphériques sur ladistribution locale et l'échouage des déchets marins flottants a ensuite pu être estimé en utilisant notammentdes données originales recueillies en mer et à terre (Mansui et al., 2015b, en révision). / The main objective of this work is to study the floating marine debris transport mechanisms and their potentialaccumulation in the Mediterranean Sea, using numerical modelling and in-situ observations of debris. Thetransport dynamics is analysed in terms of typical scales in the basin, from the large scale to the coastal andlocal scales.First, the analysis of a Lagrangian experience data set show the potential existence of non-permanent and largeretention areas (Mansui et al., 2015a). In a second stage, the coastal impact of a boundary current (the NorthernCurrent) and atmospheric forcings on the local distribution and stranding of floating marine litter has beenestimated (Mansui et al., 2015b, under revision), using an original set of data combining offshore sightings andbeaching surveys.

Among all thermal energy storage (TES) systems, latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) attracts high interest due to its high energy density and high exergetic efficiency. Due to the high enthalpy of fusion and low cost, inorganic salts are becoming popular as phase change materials and are used as the storage media in LHTES systems. The main drawbacks for the inorganic salts are their low thermal conductivity and high reactivity above 500°C. Therefore, designing a cost-effective containment at these conditions with longevity is a challenge. Macro-encapsulation of the PCM is one way to solve both the PCM containment issue as well as the low thermal conductivity problem. However, finding a practically viable encapsulation technique is a challenge especially for temperatures above 500°C. In the present study, encapsulation techniques were investigated for two temperature ranges; 500°C – 600°C and 600°C above. Metallic encapsulation was adopted for the 500°C – 600°C temperature. Commercially available, low-cost carbon-steel tubes were used, and the encapsulation shape was cylindrical. A 200µm coating of Ni was applied to strengthen the corrosion resistance. For temperatures above 600°C, a novel approach involving the use of ceramic materials was investigated for encapsulating chloride based PCMs. Low-cost ceramics with excellent thermal and chemical stability under molten-salt conditions were identified as the encapsulants. The influence of sintering temperature on the reactivity of feldspar, ball clay, kaolin and the mixture thereof with molten sodium chloride was investigated. The results were used to develop an optimum ceramic capsule fabrication procedure, using a green ceramic body followed by sintering at 1190°C. An innovative sealing process of in-situ layered eutectic formation was introduced. Sealing was performed at a temperature above the eutectic melting point of the salt mixture but below the individual melting points of each salt. The fabricated capsule survived more than 500 thermal cycles without showing degradation in its thermo-physical properties. Alumina (99%) based capsule containing NaCl-KCl was tested successfully for 1000 thermal cycles with a PCM weight loss of less than 5%. A lab-scale setup was designed and constructed to test an industry scalable LHTES system suitable for supplementing heat to a steam-powered cycle. Metallic cylindrical capsules were used with a eutectic of sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and potassium chloride (KCl), which melts at 515°C, as the PCM for energy storage. This system was modeled and validated with experimental measurements. The calculated ratio of exergy to energy efficiency was around 89% (for 380-535°C). Flow irregularities were found due to a bend in the flow channel. Therefore, flow conditioners were investigated. A modified system with the flow conditioners and radiation shields showed 98% exergy to energy efficiency ratio (for 495-535°C). The overall efficiency of the system, however, was found to be low due to the heat losses from the storage tank. Finally, a novel design of a TES system using spherical capsules is proposed with additional enhancement gained from the experimental work on the lab-scale LHTES system. The innovation of this design lies in the manufacturing process to forms multiple spherical capsules using sheet metals. The adoptability of this technique for higher or lower temperature LHTES applications depends on the properties of the selected sheet metal. Any formable sheet metal can be used depending on the compatibility with PCM and HTF.

Abstract not available

This thesis discusses rhetorical features of Indonesian research articles (RAs) in three disciplinary areas: Economics, Education and Psychology. These were written by Indonesian speakers and published mainly in university-based scientific journals. The main focus of this thesis is on the examination of the patterns of communicative purposes or ‘Moves’ and their subsequent elements or ‘Steps’ of the introduction sections of these articles. The analyses include the examination of communicative purposes and persuasive values of the texts, linguistic resources used to materialise the communicative purposes and persuasions, and the cultural factors (ie. norms, beliefs and values) and scientific practices and academic writing conventions underlying the specific rhetorical features. ¶ This study found that the macro rhetorical structure of the Indonesian RAs (ie. the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion or IMRD pattern) is relatively similar to that of the English RAs except that, unlike in English RAs, the conclusion and suggestion section in the Indonesian RAs have a separate section. However, the communicative purposes and persuasions in the introduction sections in the two groups of the RAs (English and Indonesian) are relatively different. Differences are also found in the way that rhetorical works use the linguistic resources to materialise the communicative purposes and persuasions in the introduction sections of the two groups of RAs. Some of the rhetorical differences are because of the differences in the research practices and scientific writing conventions in Indonesian and in English speaking countries, while others are because of cultural differences reflected in the two languages. ¶ The pedagogical implication of this study is that the Indonesian RA genre needs to be explicitly taught to Indonesian students, particularly university students in order to give them more access to the content of Indonesian research, and to develop skills needed by Indonesian researchers and research writers. For this purpose, an appropriate approach needs to be developed; that is to teach the generic features of Indonesian RAs such as those in social sciences written in Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome (OSAHS) is a serious sleep disordered affecting up to 24% of men and 9% of woman in the middle aged population. The current standard for the OSAHS diagnosis is Polysomnography (PSG), which refers to the continuous monitoring of multiple physiological variables over the course of a night. The main outcomes of the PSG test are the OSAHS severity measures, such as the Respiratory Disturbance Index (RDI), Arousal Index, Latencies and other information to determine the macro sleep architecture (MSA), which is defined by Wake, Rapid-eye-movement (REM) and non-REM states of sleep. The MSA results are essential for computing the diagnostic measures reported in a PSG. The existing methods of the MSA analysis require the recording of 5-7 electrophysiological signals, including the Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electroculogram (EOG), and the Electromyogram (EMG). Sleep clinicians have to depend on the manual scoring of the overnight data records using the criteria given by Rechtschaffen and Kales (R&K, 1968). The manual analysis of MSA is tedious, subjective and suffers from inter- and intra-scorer variability. Additionally, the RDI and the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) parameters although used as the primary measures of the OSAHS severity, suffers from subjectivity, low reproducibility and a poor correlation with the symptoms of OSAHS. Sleep is essentially a neuropsychological phenomenon, and the EEG remains the best technique for the functional imaging of the brain during sleep. The EEG is the direct result of the neuronal activity of the brain. However, despite the potential, the wealth of information available in the EEG signal remains virtually untapped in current OSAHS diagnosis. Although the EEG is extensively used in traditional sleep analysis, its usage is mainly limited to staging sleep, based on the four-decade old R&K criteria. This thesis addresses these issues plaguing the PSG. We develop a novel, fully-automated algorithm (Higher-order Estimated Sleep States, HESS-algorithm) for the MSA analysis, which requires only one channel of the EEG data. We also develop an objective MSA analysis technique that uses a single, one-dimensional slice of the Bispectrum of the EEG, representing a nonlinear transformation of a system function that can be considered as the EEG generator. The agreement between the human and the proposed technology was found to be in the range of 70%-87%, which are similar to those, possible between expert human scorers. The ability of the HESS algorithm to compute the MSA parameters reliably and objectively will make a dramatic impact on the diagnosis and treatment of OSAHS and other sleep diseases, such as insomnia. The proposed technology uses low-computation-load Bispectrum techniques independent of R&K Criteria (1968) making real-time automated analysis a reality. In the thesis we also propose a new index (the IHSI) to characterise the severity of sleep apnea. The new index is based on the hemispherical asymmetry of the brain and is computed from the EEG coherence analysis. We achieved a significant (p=0.0001) accuracy of up to 91% in classifying patients into apneic and non-apneic group. Our statistical analysis results show that the IHSI carries potential for providing us with a reproducible measure to assist in diagnosing of OSAHS. With the proposed methods in this thesis it may be possible to develop the technology that will not only attempt to screen the OSAHS patients but will be able to provide OSAHS diagnosis with detailed sleep architecture via home based test. These technologies will simplify the instrumentation dramatically and will make possible to extend EEG/MSA analysis to portable systems as well.

Dans le domaine du génie parasismique, l'Interaction du Sol avec la Structure (ISS) est un phénomène important à considérer pour espérer rendre compte du comportement réel d'une structure et donc évaluer sa vulnérabilité. Ce travail présente la construction d'un élément d'interface 3D modélisant une fondation superficielle de forme circulaire, rectangulaire ou filante reposant sur un massif de sol semi infini et permettant de prendre en compte l'ISS en considérant les non-linéarités matérielles (la plasticité du sol) et les non-linéarités géométriques (le décollement de la fondation). Basé sur la méthode des macro-éléments, cet élément permet de travailler en variables globales (forces et déplacements) et comporte 5 degrés de libertés. Tous les éléments du torseur d'effort appliqués à la fondation sont présents excepté le moment de torsion qui n'est pas pris en compte. Cette description globale permet ainsi de simplifier le modèle en minimisant d'une part la préparation des données et du maillage et d'autre part les temps de calculs. Les nonlinéarités sont traitées grâce aux théories classiques de plasticité et peuvent ainsi être couplées de manière simple selon la théorie des multi-mécanismes. Une description mathématique de chaque mécanisme est proposée. Le macro-élément est implémenté dans FedeasLab, un code élément finis développé dans Matlab. Des comparaisons avec des résultats expérimentaux d'une fondation soumise à des chargements cycliques, ainsi que dynamiques mais aussi des simulations modélisant des ouvrages d'arts (bâtiment, pont...) montrent le bon fonctionnement du macro-élément 3D d'ISS. Enfin, l'efficacité et la robustesse de ce genre d'outils permettent de faire des analyses paramétriques faisant évoluer plusieurs paramètres de sols qui seront présentées à l'issue de cette thèse.

Le développement de la biologie cellulaire nécessite la mise en place de moyens de micromanipulation de cellules en laboratoire. Les cellules biologiques étant de taille microscopique, l'étude de leur manipulation relève de la microrobotique et plus particulièrement de la micromanipulation. Les travaux de thèse présentés ici ont abouti à la mise au point d'un dispositif permettant de pousser des cellules contenues dans un milieu aqueux sur une lamelle de verre. Le pousseur de cellules est un élément ferromagnétique microscopique qui suit le déplacement d'un aimant permanent situé sous la lamelle de verre. Les pousseurs utilisés sont construits à base de nickel électroformé et possèdent des tailles allant de 10x10x5 µm à 400x400x20 µm. Cette thèse présente un modèle complet de la transmission de mouvement de l'aimant vers le pousseur. La poussée d'un objet peut s'effectuer de deux façons différentes : soit en faisant tourner le pousseur autour de son point de contact (rotation), soit en déplaçant le pousseur en translation. La rotation permet de déplacer un objet avec une précision inférieure à 1 µm sur une course réduite, alors que la translation permet de déplacer un objet avec une précision de l'ordre de 5 à 20 microns sur une course infinie. Nous proposons dans cette thèse une commande micro-macro spécifique permettant de déplacer un objet avec une bonne précision sur une course infinie. Nous avons également construit un estimateur de l'effort appliqué par le pousseur sur l'objet manipulé. Cet estimateur est basé sur la mesure de la position relative du pousseur par rapport à l'aimant. Un grand nombre d'expérimentations ont été mises en place grâce à notre dispositif, dont la manipulation de billes de polystyrène de 50 microns de diamètre et la manipulation d'ovules de 150 microns de diamètre.

Nous avons étudié les mécanismes responsables de la perte de cohérence dans des boîtes quantiques uniques auto-organisées InAs/GaAs. Dans un premier temps, une étude sous excitation continue de ces systèmes nous a permis d'observer un signal de photoluminescence anti-Stokes c'est à dire de la photoluminescence à plus haute énergie que l'énergie d'excitation. l'étude de ce signal a mis en évidence l'existence d'un continuum d'états descendant depuis la couche de mouillage jusqu'aux transitions des boîtes. Ce continuum d'états couplé à la fois aux niveaux discrets des boîtes et au continuum bidimensionnel de la couche de mouillage est en fait une propriété intrinsèque de ces systèmes car il provient de l'existence de transitions mixtes entre un état discret de la boîte et un état du continuum de la couche de mouillage. Dans une deuxième partie, nous nous sommes intéressés aux propriétés de cohérence des excitations électroniques grâce à des mesures de largeur spectrale des transitions. Pour atteindre la résolution nécessaire à cette étude, nous avons mis au point un dispositif de spectroscopie de la photoluminescence par transformée de Fourier. La résolution ainsi atteinte est de 0,5 microeV. Nous avons alors mis en évidence que, pour les transitions excitées des boîtes, le couplage aux phonons acoustiques, contrairement aux prédictions théoriques de goulot d'étranglement de phonons, est très efficace, aussi efficace que dans les puits quantiques InGaAs/GaAs. Cette efficacité est due à la présence du continuum des états mixtes mentionné précédemment. A l'inverse, la transition fondamentale des boîtes présente bien une inhibition du couplage aux phonons acoustiques pour des boîtes dont la transition fondamentale est bien isolée énergétiquement de ce même continuum. Enfin, nous avons montré qu'une excitation non-résonante des boîtes est responsable d'un élargissement des transitions et qu'une excitation résonante permet de limiter les interactions des boîtes avec leur environnement pour atteindre la limite ultime d'un temps de décohérence limité par le temps de vie radiatif.

<p>Wireless Sensor Network is an emerging technology that has applicationsin Wireless Actuators, remote controlling, distribution of softwareupdates and distribution of parameters to sensor nodes. This projectwork basically covers the concept of macro-diversity. This is a situationin which several transmitters are used for transferring the same signal (inmulti-hop sensor networks) to check the increase in connected nodes orin network coverage. Transmitter macro-diversity increases the receivedsignal strength and thus increases the signal-to-noise ratio which resultsin a lower outage probability. To accomplish this task three differentstrategies have been simulated using thirteen different cases. Broadcastingis used when forming SFN of size one (strategy one) and uni-castingis used for forming SFNs of size two (strategy two) and size three (strategythree).In this project reference material has been gathered frombooks, journals and web sources; and MATLAB has been used as thesimulation tool in which codes are written in the M programming language.The algorithm works firstly by discovering all the nodes that areconnected directly with the Base Station through multi-hoping, afterwhich the second algorithm is applied to check how many more nodescan be reached by forming SFNs. A gain of up to 79% was observedusing strategy one and strategy two and up to 83% in strategy three.The results shows that strategy one (Forming SFNs using BroadcastingTechnique) is the best as more nodes can be reached (for different cases)than for the other two strategies (forming SFNs using uni-casting technique).</p>