Converter of sync codes MTC to LTC is very important device to synchronize all devices which are being used for editing and other work with audio and video. Most of digital equipment can sync to MTC but LTC timecode is recorded od audio or videotape. Therefore this converter is needed to sync all connected devices to recorded timecode. This thesis is about designing and constructing the converter between these timecodes.

This thesis describes development of control algorithm for a wheelchair. Wheelchair should be capable of tracking and following a wall or a similar flat surface. Thesis is supposed to be an extension of the previous concept, whose purpose was to allow remote telepresence control of this wheelchair. SRF08 ultrasonic range finders are used to measure distance from the wall. Furthermore, image processing for mark detection is discussed. Purpose of these marks is to increase precision during final phase of the parking.

This thesis deals with developing of image processing algorithm for robots controlled by informations taken from visual system. Core of the used system constitutes low-budget platform Raspberry Pi. Before the development of algorithm there is a series of test for image processing which discovers possibilities of used platform. Problem solution is divided to several parts. Limited performance frequently leads to individual problem solving. Afterall is shown sensitivity and performance analysis of developed solution.

Ces travaux de thèse portent sur la détection audio-visuelle de marqueurs affectifs (rire et sourire) et attentionnels de personnes âgées en interaction sociale avec un robot. Pour comprendre efficacement et modéliser le comportement des personnes très âgées en présence d'un robot, des données pertinentes sont nécessaires. J'ai participé à la collection d'un corpus de personnes âgées notamment pour l'enregistrement des données visuelles. Le système utilisé pour contrôler le robot est un magicien d'Oz, plusieurs scénarios de conversation au quotidien ont été utilisés pour encourager les gens à coopérer avec le robot. Ces scénarios ont été élaborés dans le cadre du projet ROMEO2 avec l'association Approche.Nous avons décrit tout d'abord le corpus recueilli qui contient 27 sujets de 85 ans en moyenne pour une durée totale de 9 heures, les annotations et nous avons discuté des résultats obtenus à partir de l'analyse des annotations et de deux questionnaires. Ma recherche se focalise ensuite sur la détection de l'attention et la détection de rire et de sourire. Les motivations pour la détection de l'attention consistent à détecter quand le sujet ne s'adresse pas au robot et à adapter le comportement du robot à la situation. Après avoir considéré les difficultés liées aux personnes âgées et les résultats d'analyse obtenus par l'étude des annotations du corpus, nous nous intéressons à la rotation de la tête au niveau de l'indice visuel et à l'énergie et la qualité de voix pour la détection du destinataire de la parole. La détection de rire et sourire peut être utilisée pour l'étude sur le profil du locuteur et de ses émotions. Mes intérêts se concentrent sur la détection de rire et sourire dans la modalité visuelle et la fusion des informations audio-visuelles afin d'améliorer la performance du système automatique. Les expressions sont différentes des expressions actées ou posés à la fois en apparence et en temps de réaction. La conception d'un système qui marche sur les données réalistes des personnes âgées est encore plus difficile à cause de plusieurs difficultés à envisager telles que le manque de données pour l'entrainement du modèle statistique, l'influence de la texture faciale et de la façon de sourire pour la détection visuelle, l'influence de la qualité vocale pour la détection auditive, la variété du temps de réaction, le niveau de compréhension auditive, la perte de la vue des personnes âgées, etc. Les systèmes de détection de la rotation de la tête, de la détection de l'attention et de la détection de rire et sourire sont évalués sur le corpus ROMEO2 et partiellement évalués (détections visuelles) sur les corpus standard Pointing04 et GENKI-4K pour comparer avec les scores des méthodes de l'état de l'art. Nous avons également trouvé une corrélation négative entre la performance de détection de rire et sourire et le nombre d'évènement de rire et sourire pour le système visuel et le système audio-visuel. Ce phénomène peut être expliqué par le fait que les personnes âgées qui sont plus intéressées par l'expérimentation rient plus souvent et sont plus à l'aise donc avec des poses variées. La variété des poses et le manque de données correspondantes amènent des difficultés pour la reconnaissance de rire et de sourire pour les systèmes statistiques.Les expérimentations montrent que la rotation de la tête peut être efficacement utilisée pour détecter la perte de l'attention du sujet dans l'interaction avec le robot. Au niveau de la détection de l'attention, le potentiel d'une méthode en cascade qui utilise les modalités d'une manière complémentaire est montré. Cette méthode donne de meilleurs résultats que le système auditif seul. Pour la détection de rire et sourire, en suivant le même protocole « Leave-one-out », la fusion des deux systèmes monomodaux améliore aussi significativement la performance par rapport à un système monomodal au niveau de l'évaluation segmentale. / This thesis work focuses on audio-visual detection of emotional (laugh and smile) and attentional markers for elderly people in social interaction with a robot. To effectively understand and model the pattern of behavior of very old people in the presence of a robot, relevant data are needed. I participated in the collection of a corpus of elderly people in particular for recording visual data. The system used to control the robot is a Wizard of Oz, several daily conversation scenarios were used to encourage people to interact with the robot. These scenarios were developed as part of the ROMEO2 project with the Approche association. We described at first the corpus collected which contains 27 subjects of 85 years' old on average for a total of 9 hours, annotations and we discussed the results obtained from the analysis of annotations and two questionnaires.My research then focuses on the attention detection and the laughter and smile detection. The motivations for the attention detection are to detect when the subject is not addressing to the robot and adjust the robot's behavior to the situation. After considering the difficulties related to the elderly people and the analytical results obtained by the study of the corpus annotations, we focus on the rotation of the head at the visual index and energy and quality vote for the detection of the speech recipient. The laughter and smile detection can be used to study on the profile of the speaker and her emotions. My interests focus on laughter and smile detection in the visual modality and the fusion of audio-visual information to improve the performance of the automatic system. Spontaneous expressions are different from posed or acted expression in both appearance and timing. Designing a system that works on realistic data of the elderly is even more difficult because of several difficulties to consider such as the lack data for training the statistical model, the influence of the facial texture and the smiling pattern for visual detection, the influence of voice quality for auditory detection, the variety of reaction time, the level of listening comprehension, loss of sight for elderly people, etc. The systems of head-turning detection, attention detection and laughter and smile detection are evaluated on ROMEO2 corpus and partially evaluated (visual detections) on standard corpus Pointing04 and GENKI-4K to compare with the scores of the methods on the state of the art. We also found a negative correlation between laughter and smile detection performance and the number of laughter and smile events for the visual detection system and the audio-visual system. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that elderly people who are more interested in experimentation laugh more often and therefore perform more various poses. The variety of poses and the lack of corresponding data bring difficulties for the laughter and smile recognition for our statistical systems. The experiments show that the head-turning can be effectively used to detect the loss of the subject's attention in the interaction with the robot. For the attention detection, the potential of a cascade method using both methods in a complementary manner is shown. This method gives better results than the audio system. For the laughter and smile detection, under the same leave-one-out protocol, the fusion of the two monomodal systems significantly improves the performance of the system at the segmental evaluation.

The global effort to rehabilitate and restore destroyed mangrove forests is unable to keep up with the high mangrove deforestation rates which exceed the average pace of global deforestation by three to five times. Our knowledge of the underlying processes of mangrove forest regeneration is too limited in order to find suitable techniques for the restoration of degraded mangrove areas. The general objective of my dissertation was to improve mangrove restoration by understanding regeneration processes and local plant-plant interaction in a regenerating Avicennia germinans forest. The study was conducted in a high-shore mangrove forest area on the Ajuruteua peninsula, State of Para, Northern Brazil. The dwarf forest consisting of shrub-like trees is recovering from a stand-replacing event caused by a road construction in 1974 which interrupted the tidal inundation of the study area. Consequently, infrequent inundation and high porewater salinity limit tree growth and canopy closure. All trees and seedlings were stem-mapped in six 20 m x 20 m plots which were located along a tree density gradient. Moreover, height, crown extent, basal stem diameter of trees were measured. The area of herbaceous ground vegetation and wood debris were mapped as well. The mapped spatial distribution of trees, seedlings and covariates was studied using point pattern analysis and point process models, such as Gibbs and Thomas point process, in order to infer underlying ecological processes, such as seed dispersal, seedling establishment, tree recruitment and tree interaction. In the first study (chapter 2), I analyzed the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on the seedling establishment and tree recruitment of A. germinans during the recolonization of severely degraded mangrove sites using point process modeling. Most seedlings established adjacent to adult trees especially under their crown cover. Moreover, seedling density was higher within patches of the herbaceous salt-marsh plants Blutaparon portulacoides and Sesuvium portulacastrum than in uncovered areas. The higher density of recruited A. germinans trees in herb patches indicated that ground vegetation did not negatively influence tree development of A. germinans. In addition, tree recruitment occurred in clusters. Coarse wood debris had no apparent effect on either life stage. These results confirm that salt-marsh vegetation acts as the starting point for mangrove recolonization and indicate that the positive interaction among trees accelerates forest regeneration. In the second study (chapter 3), I analyzed how intraspecific interaction among A. germinans trees determines their growth and size under harsh environmental conditions. Interaction among a higher number of neighboring trees was positively related to the development of a focal tree. However, tree height, internode length and basal stem diameter were only positively associated in low-density forest stands (1.2 trees m-2) and not in forest stands of higher tree density (2.7 trees m-2). These results indicated a shift from facilitation, i.e. a positive effect of tree interaction, towards a balance between facilitation and competition. In the third study (chapter 4), I used point process modeling and the individual-based model mesoFON to disentangle the impact of regeneration and interaction processes on the spatial distribution of seedlings and trees. In this infrequently inundated area, propagules of A. germinans are only dispersed at a maximum distance of 3 m from their parent tree. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the following seedling establishment is influenced by trees. I was able to differentiate positive and negative tree interactions simulated by the mangrove model mesoFON regardless of dispersal processes based on static tree size information using the mark-correlation function. The results of this dissertation suggest that mangrove forest regeneration in degraded areas is a result of facilitative and not competitive interactions among mangrove trees, seedling and herbaceous vegetation. This has important implications for the restoration of degraded mangrove forest. Degraded mangrove areas are usually restored by planting a high number of evenly spaced seedlings. However, high costs constrain this approach to small areas. Assisting natural regeneration could be a less costly alternative. Herbaceous vegetation plays a crucial role in forest recolonization by entrapping propagules and possibly ameliorating harsh environmental conditions. So far only competition among mangrove trees has been considered during restoration. However, facilitative tree interactions could be utilized by planting seedling clusters in order to assist natural regeneration instead of planting seedlings evenly-spaced over large areas. This dissertation also showed that point pattern analysis and point process modeling can enable forest ecologists to describe the spatial distribution of trees as well as to infer underlying ecological processes.

The main objective was to set up models of the soil-plant-atmosphere system for the growing of Grape Leaves with drip irrigation in the Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam. The computer software tool CoupModel was used in this modelling process. The focus of the model was the systems soil hydraulics and the water balance between its components. When running several 21 years simulations it could be seen that slight variations in soil texture inputs resulted in relatively big output changes. For example, by either using the soil texture laboratory results or the soil water retention inputs gained from tensiometers and moisture meters in the field, gave an annual irrigation amount difference of 100 mm. However, it can be questioned if the models reached the goal of simulating an  efficient irrigation schedule  due to the soil evaporation output being high throughout the year.  For further research, longer time series of field measurements together with more knowledge about the plant would be preferable in order to validate and improve the model. / MÂlet med denna studie var att uppr‰tta modeller ˆver mark-v‰xt-atmosf‰r-systemet i programmet CoupModel. Modellerna skulle anpassas fˆr odlingen av vinblad med hj‰lp av droppbevattning i Binh Thuan-provinsen i Vietnam. Fokus i denna studie var vattenflˆden och vattenbalansen mellan systemets komponenter. Efter att ha kˆrt flera 21 Âr lÂnga simuleringar var det tydligt att sm variationer i indata resulterade i relativt stora skillnader i utdata. Om till exempel  v‰rden  angÂende jordartens struktur  erhÂllna  frÂn laboratoriet anv‰ndes ist‰llet fˆr f‰ltm‰tningar frÂn tensiometrar och fuktm‰tare blev det en Ârlig bevattningsskillnad p 100 mm. Det kan ifrÂgas‰ttas huruvida mÂlet att simulera en vatteneffektiv bevattning blev nÂtt d jordavdunstningen var hˆg Âret runt. Fˆr vidare studier skulle l‰ngre tidsserier av f‰ltm‰tningar tillsammans med mer kunskap om plantan vara nyttigt fˆr att kunna validera och fˆrb‰ttra modellen.

The fact that there is a housing shortage in Stockholm is discussed regularly in the media today. Stockholm municipality owns about 70 percent of all land in the municipality and in the role as landowner, the municipality has the opportunity to influence where and what, within the municipality, there is to be built. In this paper, we have looked at the Norra Djurgårdsstaden project, Norra 2 and discovered that there are significant differences in how the city provides land for condominiums and tenancy apartments. We have in particular looked at how the land allocation and the pricing of the land have been made. In Stockholm municipality's land allocation policy from 2015 the municipality specifies four ways to grant land through land allocation. This policy also specifies the city that the tenancy apartments to have granted on leasehold. In this study we have looked at the differences and problems that can occur when tenancy apartments are granted the leasehold in a central location as Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Further on this paper discuss Stockholm municipality's new proposals on ground rents and what potential consequences for the construction of rental apartments in central Stockholm this proposal could have. We also discuss whether it is appropriate to grant leasehold rights for tenancy apartments in this kind of location in the city with the current rent setting system. Finally the paper brings up options for future applications that could allow different forms of tenure to compete for land in a more market oriented way. / Faktumet att det råder bostadsbrist i Stockholm diskuteras med jämna mellanrum i media idag. Stockholms stad äger cirka 70 procent av all mark inom kommunen och i rollen som markägare har staden möjlighet att påverka vad och var inom kommunen det ska byggas. I denna uppsats har vi tittat på projektet Norra Djurgårdsstaden, Norra 2 och upptäckt att det finns väsentliga skillnader i hur staden upplåter mark för bostadsrättslägenheter respektive hyresrättslägenheter. Vi har framförallt tittat på själva markanvisningen och hur prissättningen av marken har gått till. I Stockholms stads markanvisningspolicy från 2015 anger staden fyra olika sätt att upplåta mark genom markanvisning. I denna policy anger också staden att hyresrättslägenheter ska få upplåtas på tomträtt. I den här undersökningen har vi tittat på de skillnader och problem som kan uppstå när hyresrätter upplåts på tomträtt i ett central läge som Norra Djurgårdsstaden. Vidare i arbetet behandlas även Stockholms stads nya förslag om tomträttsavgälder och vad detta förslag kan få för eventuella konsekvenser för byggandet av hyresrättslägenheter i centrala Stockholm. Vi diskuterar också om det är lämpligt att upplåta tomträtter för hyresrättslägenheter i denna typ av läge i staden med det nuvarande hyressättningssytemet. Slutligen tar arbetet upp alternativ till framtida tillämpningar som skulle kunna möjliggöra olika upplåtelseformer att konkurrera om mark på ett mera marknadsmässigt sätt.

Denna tekniska rapport är gjort med två huvudmål. Det ena är att försöka lyfta fram vilka skillnader och likheter som finns mellan hur Statens vegvesen i Norge och Trafikverket i Sverige genomför kostnadsberäkning för sina vägprojekt. Det andra huvudmålet är att försöka analysera ett antal utvalda vägprojekt i Norge för att kunna göra konklusioner på hur bra kostnadsberäkningarna stämmer med verkliga kostnader. Det presenteras en beskrivande del för att ge läsaren en teoretisk bakgrund för att förstå metoden respektive organ använder för sina kalkyler. Ut ifrån detta blir skillnader och likheter diskuterat. En analyserande del tar läsaren genom den analys som är gjort för att göra slutsatser om hur de verkliga kostnaderna ser ut jämfört med de på förhand kalkylerade kostnaderna. Alla slutsatser presenteras avslutningsvis tillsammans med vidare rekommendationer. / This technical report is done with two main goals. The first is to try to highlight the differences and similarities between the methods for costing that Statens vegvesen in Norway and Trafikverket in Sweden use for their road projects. The second goal is to try to analyze a number of selected road projects in Norway in order to make conclusions about how well the calculated costs are compared to the actual costs. The report contains a describing section in purpose to give the reader a theoretical background for understanding the methods for costing. From this theoretical part the differences and similarities are discussed. An analytical part takes the reader trough the analyze that is done of the Norwegian projects in order to make conclusions about how well the real costs are compared to the pre-calculated costs. All of the findings and conclusions are presented in the end of the report together with further recommendations.

Dagens samhällsutveckling riktar stort fokus på att skapa en blandstad. En blandstad är en stad eller en stadsdel som har en funktionell blandning av bostäder, handel, arbetsplatser och nöjesliv. För att begreppet ska uppfyllas så eftersöker idealet att dessa funktioner samsas inom samma byggnad eller kvarter. Att uppföra nya stadsdelar är inte alltid förenligt med en hållbar utveckling eftersom det kräver stora resurser. Därför kan det vara lämpligt att utveckla underutnyttjade industriområden som ofta har ett centrumnära läge i städerna. En omvandling av sådana områden ger goda förutsättningar för en hållbar utveckling.  Växjö kommun vill skapa en hållbar, trivsam och hälsosam stad och verkar för att stadsstrukturen ska bli mer sammanhängande. Dagens renodlade verksamhetsområden i staden ska på sikt kunna bli en blandstad. Sydöstra delen av Västra Mark är stadens första stora industriområde där Växjö kommun föreslår en omvandling. Visionen är att området ska få behålla sin industriella karaktär samtidigt som en variation av funktioner blandas för att skapa en blandstad.  Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka de viktigaste faktorerna för vad som gör en blandstad attraktiv för boende, besökande och arbetande. Målet är att ta fram ett förslag för hur betraktat område i Västra Mark kan omvandlas till blandstad över tid genom en illustrationsplan på kvartersutveckling. Illustrationsplanen visar vilka byggnader som anses lämpliga att bevara samt var nybyggnation kan utföras. Vidare redovisar den lämpliga funktioner för området. Visionen är att området ska få utvecklas till blandstad över tid och delas därför in i etapper för att uppmuntra till initiativ hos fastighetsägarna.  För att utföra arbetet har olika metoder använts. Arbetets tillvägagångssätt bygger på tre steg som är intervjuer, fallstudier och förslag. Intervjuer har genomförts med sakkunniga stadsutvecklare för att få deras uppfattning om hur en omvandling till blandstad kan genomföras. Fallstudierna omfattade en granskning av två andra industri- och verksamhetsområden som har pekats ut för omvandling till blandstad. Fallstudier av de två områdena gjordes för att undersöka vilka riktlinjer och faktorer som har påverkat en omvandling. Förslaget har sedan tagits fram utifrån en områdesanalys och resultatet från intervjuerna och fallstudierna.  Resultatet bygger på den empiri som erhållits med hjälp av metoderna i studien. Resultatet från intervjuerna visar att viljan från fastighetsägarna är den viktigaste faktorn för att en omvandling ska vara möjlig. För att ett område ska bli attraktivt krävs det att det finns en stor variation av funktioner som korsbefruktar varandra. Offentliga och privata platser, torg, stråk, grönytor och rekreationsytor är några viktiga parametrar för att blandstaden ska få en karaktär som gör att människor vill vistas och ta sig till området. Resultatet från fallstudierna visar att områdena ska utvecklas etappvis och på sikt få en kvartersstruktur likt den traditionella staden. Det läggs även stor vikt på funktionsvariation där människor kan bo, verka och leva. Vikten av att området får behålla sin identitet genom att förhöja och bevara arkitektur är också grundläggande för att området ska locka olika typer av människor. Slutligen visar både intervjuer och fallstudier att aktiva bottenvåningar med blandad bebyggelse är väsentligt för att det ska bli blandstad med innerstadskaraktär. / Several industrial areas are facing transformation to mixed-use city, where a variety of functions such as housing, workplaces and commerce are integrated with each other. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors make a mixed-use city attractive for the people that resides there. This study presents a proposal of how such an area in Växjö can be redevelop to a mixed-use city over time. The proposal is based on interviews with experts within the subject and on case studies of similar areas undergoing redevelopment.  The result shows that the key factors are the willingness of the property owners and that a variety of functions is created that cross-pollinate each other. Active ground floors and a mix of public and private zones, green structure and squares are also essential for the mixed-use city to become an attractive urban area.

Killer whales are the oceans’ apex predator and are known to have important effects on ecosystems. At Subantarctic Marion Island, southern Indian Ocean, they have only been studied opportunistically, resulting in limited knowledge of their ecosystem impact here. This dissertation describes the prey and seasonal abundance, estimates the population size and assesses the predatory impact of killer whales on seals and penguins at Marion Island, using dedicated and opportunistic shore-based observations and photographic identification, from 2006 to 2009. During 823 sightings of killer whales at Marion Island (2006 to 2009) 48 predation events were recorded; in only 10 cases could prey be identified. Killer whales fed on fur seals, elephant seals and penguins. Constant effort (dedicated) observations (259 hours, 2008 to 2009) showed that killer whale abundance, which peaked in September to December with a secondary peak in April to May, is linked to the abundance of seals and penguins. Mark-recapture analyses were performed using nearly 10 000 photographs taken from 2006 to 2009. Following careful quality control criteria 37 individuals were identified and a population size of 42 (95% CI = 35-50) individuals estimated using the open population POPAN parameterization in the software program MARK. The analytical approach is more rigorous than that used in any previous population size assessment at Marion Island. Finally, the above data were integrated to assess whether top-down control of seal and penguin populations at Marion Island is generally plausible using a simple process of elimination. Based on published data I predicted the energetic ingestion requirements of adult male and female killer whales as 1 394 MJ.day-1 and 1 028 MJ.day-1, respectively. Expanding these requirements to the 37 killer whales photographically identified at Marion Island, the population requires 40 600MJ.day-1. Based on available energy density and mass data, I predicted the energy content of available seal and penguin prey and calculated the rates at which killer whales would consume these prey in various scenarios. Penguins and Subantarctic fur seals are relatively insensitive to killer whale predation owing to their large population sizes (10 000s to 100 000s), conversely, the smaller populations (100s to 1 000s) of Antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals are sensitive to predation, particularly the latter as they have a high energy content (approximately 2 000 to 9 000 MJ). Populations of these seals are currently increasing or stable and I conclude that presently killer whale predation is not driving population declines, although they clearly have the potential for regulation of these smaller populations. Thus, if population sizes were reduced by bottom-up processes, if killer whale diet shifted, or if prey availability changed, top-down control by killer whales could become significant. This study provides baseline information for the informed management and conservation of killer whales at Marion Island, identifies avenues for further research, and provides a foundation for the continuation of structured and dedicated killer whale research at Marion Island. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted