In wireless sensor networks, communications are usually destroyed by signal attenuation, multipath fading and different kinds of interferences like WLAN and microwave oven interference. In order to build a stable wireless communication system, reactions like retransmission mechanisms are necessary. Since the way we must react to interference is different from the way we react to multipathfading and attenuation, the retransmission mechanism should be adjusted in different ways under those different cicumstances. Under this condition, channel diagnostics for discriminating the causes that corrupt the packets between multipath fading and attenuation (MFA) and WLAN interference are imperative. This paper presents a frame bit error rate (F-BER) regulated algorithm based on a joint RSSI-LQI classifier that may correctly diagnose the channel status. This discriminator is implemented on MicaZ sensor devices equipped with CC2420 transceivers. This discriminator is able to improve the accuracy to 91%. Although we need to wait for 2 or 3 necessary packets to make a decision, higher stability and reliability are presented when operating this discriminator.

Ce travail a pour objectif de réorienter un cristal liquide nématique par la photoisomérisation de deux composés azoïques greffés sur des lames de verre, le DR19 et le DR1. Dans une première étape, nous avons procédé à la silanisation de ces composés photosensibles afin de pouvoir les greffer chimiquement sur des substrats siliciques. Nous avons ensuite greffé ces chromophores sur de la silice mésoporeuse afin d’optimiser la méthode de greffage. Deux paramètres ont été pris en compte dans cette étude : la nature du solvant et le taux d’hydratation de la surface. Une analyse quantitative, structurale et spectroscopique des matériaux hybrides, nous a permis de conclure à la chimisorption des deux azosilanes sur la surface de la silice. Les greffages du DR19Si en milieu éthanolique aqueux d’une part, et du DR1Si dans le THF sur de la silice hydratée d’autre part, ont donné les meilleurs résultats du point de vue quantitatif. A partir de ces résultats, nous avons procédé au greffage des azosilanes sur les lames de verre en mettant en évidence l’importance du film d’eau physisorbé en surface. La caractérisation chimique par les spectroscopies UV/Visible et SPX a démontré la présence des chromophores sur la surface des lames. Une modélisation par SPX des lames de verre fonctionnalisées a été également effectuée puis confirmée par MFA. Enfin, l’action de ces lames fonctionnalisées par greffage sur la réorientation du 5CB a été appréciée au moyen d’un montage pompe-sonde. L’efficacité cinétique et quantitative des chromophores greffés sur une surface a été comparée à celle des chromophores libres dispersés dans la mésophase. / This work aims to reorientate a nematic liquid crystal by the photoisomerization of two azo compounds grafted on glass slides, the DR19 and the DR1. First, we have proceeded to the silanisation of these photosensitive compounds in order to be able to graft them chemically on silica substrates. Then we have grafted these chromophores on mesoporous silica in order to optimize the grafting method. Two parameters have been taken into account in this study: the nature of the solvent and the surface hydration rate. A quantitative, structural and spectroscopic analysis of hybrid materials enabled us to conclude to the chemisorption of both azosilanes on silica surface. Quantitatively, the DR19Si grafting in an ethanolic aqueous solution, and the DR1Si one, in a THF solution on hydrated silica gave the best results. From these results, we have proceeded to the azosilanes grafting on the glass slides while highlighting the importance of the physisorbed water film on the surface. Chemical characterization by UV/Visible and XPS spectroscopy has shown the presence of chromophores on the slides surface. A modelling by XPS, of the functionalized glass slides was also carried out and confirmed by AFM. Lastly, the action of these slides functionalized by grafting on the 5CB reorientation has been appreciated by means of an experimental pump-probe set-up. The kinetic and quantitative effectiveness of grafted chromophores on a surface have been compared with the one of free chromophores dispersed in the mesophase.

The aim of this study is to contribute to today´s knowledge about stocks of electronic products on the organisational level. This is done by using a bottom-up MFA on laptops and smartphones in a chosen organisation, the data collected for this study is done by both semi-structured interviews and literature searches. Investigating the associated metals in the laptops and smartphones is also an aim of this study. Having knowledge of the existing stocks and flows of materials is important for the prospects of urban mining. This study takes a circular economy aspect of the current state of stocks and flows of materials. Circulation of materials within society is an effective approach to saving resources rather than just recycling the materials since not all materials can be retrieved through recycling processes. The results show that there is a significant stock of metals embedded in the laptops and smartphones in the organisation. Metals found include Aluminium, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Nickel, Tin, Gold, Silver, Palladium, Zinc, Lead, Cobalt, Barium and Neodymium. The results also indicates that some of the laptop stock is in hibernation and so is the associated metals in these laptops. These stocks could be of big importance for future sources of metal resources, but more studies are needed to fully understand the stocks of metals in society and how much of these stocks that are in hibernation. / Gruvan i garderoben

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第20039号 / 地環博第155号 / 新制||地環||31(附属図書館) / 33135 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎環境マネジメント専攻 / (主査)教授 藤井 滋穂, 准教授 田中 周平, 准教授 大下 和徹 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

This short story collection consists of twenty short fictions and a novella. A preface precedes the collection addressing issues of craft, pedagogy, and the post Program Era literary landscape, with particular attention paid to the need for empathy as an active guiding principle in the writing of fiction.

I went into the wilderness and I found Alec Baldwin. This is not a lie. It is also a title for a video installation and this thesis. In it, I investigate three separate adventure-performances, providing a theoretical context for their existence, meaning, and relationship as a form of artistic practice. I call this practice ‘adventure-art’, using the term to describe a performance-based action in which the artist publically explores his or her reality through some type of physical adventure, search, quest, or challenge. It is an attempt to engage oneself and others at both at the physical and mediated levels, reconciling, confusing, and merging the real with the simulated. In this thesis, I explore the confluence of consumption, creativity, the real, and the simulated within American popular culture from the perspective of a middle-class, suburban, white-male, art student – me, Steve Snell.

Blivits! is a feature-length documentary produced, written, and directed by Charles Sutter in pursuit of the Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. This thesis examines the ethical questions of making a documentary in the digital era. In accordance with the restrictions of the program's guidelines, this film was completed a budget of less than $50,000. The film was shot over 18 days, in various locations up and down the east coast of the United States. This thesis is the record of Blivits!'s journey through development until completion of picture lock.

My purpose in entering the UCF MFA program was to further explore and develop my passion for photography. During my time in the program, I developed my methodology--from having the traditional photography paradigm ingrained in my mind (and wanting to fit into it) to accepting and valuing my own unique process. I construct installations using diverse imagery and non-traditional presentation. In my installations, one may witness a reflection of the contemporary pace of image perception--fragmented, complex, abundant, and disordered. Together, images and their arrangements are used to create a unified piece that satisfies a new system within apparent disorder. The resulting installations summon the sensation of thinking and processing information in a new way, allowing for re-contextualization of fragmented imagery. Technology has pushed photography to evolve. Previously held traditional notions of photography as art (e.g., "single telling moment" photographs and similar subject matter) are now being confronted by a vernacular of "many telling moments". The current state of the art world is in flux, and is greatly influenced by the faster pace set by technology; I coin our new vernacular Image Culture.

As a contemporary photographer, I focus most on light and color to bring out the uniqueness of my images. Photography is about lighting and I manipulate lights to raise questions in my viewers. Manipulating light is my way of being curious about how it may change mood physically and emotionally. Inspired by classical paintings, I have developed a body of photographs that can be admired by anyone. Although the main focus of my work is light and color, this body of work is also intended to empower those with little confidence in themselves and those who have been rejected, abused, or mistrusted.

Potential Energy. (Under the direction of Pat Rushin.) Potential Energy is a collection of sixteen short stories. They range from the fictional to the autofictional to the entirely non-fictional. In all of them, characters both real and imagined struggle to live and define themselves in a world that is outside their control. They cope with the inevitability of loss, dangers both internal and external, and the passing of their own greatness. Some of these characters become lost while others learn to embrace life on its own terms'to accept 'without hope or expectation.' More often, they are not lost or enlightened, but simply survive to continue on, still uncertain. Though all the stories in Potential Energy are stand-alone, they are thematically connected. The themes of family and identity are most prominent in 'Potential Energy' and 'Eulogy to Maria Mamani, Fire-Eater.' Loss is confronted and the question of what comes next is asked in 'Oysters' and 'Slide.' The conflict between fate and the need for control rises to the surface in 'Threshold,' 'The Elizabeth Years,' and the non-fiction story of Charles Whitman's deadly rampage in 1966, 'Seed.' Themes of ambiguity, moral erosion, and literary exploitation appear in the non-fiction 'Bright and Loud and Then Gone,' about a landlord burned alive in Chicago in 2008, and 'What It Might Have Been Like If We Had Been There,' an apologetic for the writer's right to write inspired by the 2007 Al Mutanabbi Street car-bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Most importantly all the content of Potential Energy tells stories of people trying to hold on to what is good when, tragically, everything must eventually come to an end.