In an effort to shift reliance away from single-occupancy vehicles, many cities have been investing in active and public transportation, and promoting multi-modal travel. It has been recognized both academically and professionally that there is a need to address issues regarding access to transit stations and nodes – the ‘first mile problem.’ Many see bicycles as the answer to the first mile problem; however, scholarly literature has generally neglected exploring how to accommodate bicycles at different stations. This practicum investigates the first mile problem in Edmonton, Alberta, and identifies existing challenges with bicycle access to Edmonton’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) system. The findings suggest three distinct LRT ‘station types’, each requiring a nuanced suite of infrastructure improvements in order to encourage more bicycle access. Further, these improvements can only be realized through the development and execution of comprehensive policies and regulations that support cycling and bike-transit integration. / October 2016

We report the detection of a significant infrared variability of the nearest tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and newly released Near-Earth Object WISE Reactivation data. In comparison with the quiescent state, the infrared flux is brightened by 0.12 and 0.16 mag in the W1 (3.4 mu m) and W2 (4.6 mu m) bands at 36 days after the optical discovery (or similar to 110 days after the peak disruption date). The flux excess is still detectable similar to 170 days later. Assuming that the flare-like infrared emission is from the dust around the black hole, its blackbody temperature is estimated to be similar to 2.1 x 10(3) K, slightly higher than the dust sublimation temperature, indicating that the dust is likely located close to the dust sublimation radius. The equilibrium between the heating and radiation of the dust claims a bolometric luminosity of similar to 10(43) - 10(45) erg s(-1), comparable with the observed peak luminosity. This result has for the first time confirmed the detection of infrared emission from the dust echoes of TDEs.

The objective of this research is to develop a wearable device that could harvest waste mechanical energy of the human hand movement and utilize this energy to suppress wrist tremors. Piezoelectric material is used to measure the hand movement signals, and the signal of wrist tremor is filtered to be utilized to suppress the tremor. In order to conduct the experiment of energy harvesting and tremor suppression, an experimental rig was fabricated. Two types of piezoelectric materials, PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) films and MFC (macro fiber composite) films, are used to harvest mechanical energy and used as actuators to suppress hand tremors. However, due to some shortages of the materials, these two types of materials are not used as actuators to suppress the wrist tremors. Thus, we use Matlab Simulink to simulate the tremor suppression with AVC (active vibration control) algorithm.

The results of the study showed that D-Amphetamine had a significant effect on the acquisition of the active avoidance conditioning (CAR).

The aim of the thesis is to upgrade an existing Remote Laboratory for Active Noise Control (ANC) and acoustics experiments providing users with a more authentic real life experience. This is done by designing a solution that allows remote position control of microphones inside a ventilation duct for ANC experiments. The suggested features to be implemented substantially improve the flexibility of the existing remote laboratory, based on the Virtual Instrument System in Reality (VISIR) platform, as well as providing more control over the system as a whole. The work in the project may be divided into the following steps: theoretical design of mechanical and electrical parts of the system along with control algorithms which include a study of similar solutions and related work, implementation of designed system, subsequent testing of the system, connecting the implemented system to the equipment for remote communication and adding the appropriate features to the remote control interface.

Swift monitoring of NGC 4151 with an similar to 6 hr sampling over a total of 69 days in early 2016 is used to construct light curves covering five bands in the X-rays (0.3-50 keV) and six in the ultraviolet (UV)/optical (1900-5500 angstrom). The three hardest X-ray bands (> 2.5 keV) are all strongly correlated with no measurable interband lag, while the two softer bands show lower variability and weaker correlations. The UV/optical bands are significantly correlated with the X-rays, lagging similar to 3-4 days behind the hard X-rays. The variability within the UV/optical bands is also strongly correlated, with the UV appearing to lead the optical by similar to 0.5-1 days. This combination of greater than or similar to 3 day lags between the X-rays and UV and less than or similar to 1 day lags within the UV/optical appears to rule out the "lamp-post" reprocessing model in which a hot, X-ray emitting corona directly illuminates the accretion disk, which then reprocesses the energy in the UV/optical. Instead, these results appear consistent with the Gardner & Done picture in which two separate reprocessings occur: first, emission from the corona illuminates an extreme-UV-emitting toroidal component that shields the disk from the corona; this then heats the extreme-UV component, which illuminates the disk and drives its variability.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the direct effects of labour market institu- tions on unemployment rates in the selected EU Members. For this purpose, we use macroeconomic cross-country, time series analysis for 21 OECD European members over the 2001-2011 period. The results gained from our empirical ana- lysis are rather inconclusive over the possibility to explain the development of European unemployment solely by analysing the effects of labour market insti- tutions. This finding might as well be caused by the volatile evolution of both output and unemployment over the observed period. The importance of busi- ness cycle is confirmed by our results as the measure for the output gap appears highly significant in every model specification. Unlike the majority of previous literature, in our estimates the proxies for macroeconomic shocks do not turn out to be significant. Hence, we decided not to examine mutual interactions between macroeconomic shocks and institutions. JEL Classifications: J08, J30, J51, J64 Keywords: unemployment, labour market institutions, EU, active labour mar- ket policies Author s e-mail: janhnevkovsky@gmail.com Supervisor s e-mail: strielkowski@fsv.cuni.cz 1

Afin de générer des plasmas performants sur de longues durées, un tokamak nécessite des dispositifs de chauffage et de génération de courant additionnels. Des antennes haute-fréquences, délivrant des puissances de plusieurs mégawatts au plasma, sont actuellement utilisées dans de nombreux tokamaks. Pour optimiser les performances de chauffage et de génération de courant obtenues avec le système LH (fréquence de quelques gigahertz), une bonne maitrise du couplage de l'onde émise par l'antenne au plasma de bord est nécessaire. Or, des effets non-linéaires dépendant du niveau de puissance HF injectée dans le plasma perturbent fortement le couplage de l'onde LH pour certains paramètres de bord (densité et température en particulier). Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit portent sur l'étude du couplage linéaire et non-linéaire de l'onde LH au plasma de bord. Dans le cadre de l'installation d'une antenne dite « Passive Active Multijunction » en 2009 sur le tokamak Tore Supra visant à tester le système LH proposé pour ITER, la caractérisation du couplage obtenu avec cette antenne a été réalisée à partir d'expériences menées à basse puissance sur Tore Supra. Les résultats, analysés conjointement avec l'utilisation d'un code de couplage (ALOHA), ont ainsi validé les prédictions théoriques prévoyant de bonnes propriétés de couplage à des densités de plasma de bord faibles. Par ailleurs, l'effet pondéromoteur a été clairement identifié comme responsable de la forte détérioration du couplage de l'onde mesurée sous certaines conditions de plasma de bord. / In order to achieve long pulse operation with a tokamak, additional heating and current drive systems are necessary. High frequency antennas, which deliver several megawatts of power to the plasma, are currently used in several tokamaks. Moreover, a good control of the coupling of the wave launched by the antenna to the edge plasma is required to optimize the efficiency of heating and current drive LH systems. However, non-linear effects which depend on the level of injected power in the plasma strongly damage the coupling of the LH wave at particular edge parameters (density and temperature profiles). Results presented in the manuscript deal with the study of the linear and non-linear coupling of the LH wave to the plasma. In the framework of the commissioning of the Passive Active Multijunction antenna in 2009 on the Tore Supra tokamak aiming at validating the LH system suggested for ITER, the characterisation of its coupling properties was realized from low power experiments. The experimental results, which are compared with the linear coupling code ALOHA, have valided the theoretical predictions of good coupling at edge plasma density around the cut-off density. Besides, the ponderomotive effect is clearly identified as responsible for the deterioration in the coupling of the wave, which is measured under particular edge plasma conditions. A theoretical model combining the coupling of the LH wave with the ponderomotive force is suggested to explain the experimental observations.

In the present work we study conceptual modeling of business ar- tifacts and their implementation in Active XML. Business artifacts are key con- ceptual entities of business processes that develop in their lifecycle during these processes. There are several possible methods for definition of artifact lifecycles. In this work, we make use of emerging method called Guard-Stage-Milestone meta- model and we study the question on how to appropriately use and extend current framework for conceptual modeling of XML schemas in order to support modeling of business artifacts. We also deal with the issue of design of suitable represen- tation of business artifacts using Active XML. Last but not least, we study the question how to translate defined model into proposed Active XML representation, so that it was possible to immediately use and demonstrate functionality of defined model. Important part of this work is an implementation of proposed extension and a prototype implementation of system for execution of Active XML repre- sentations of translated models. The present work also introduces the reader in individual used concepts and describes similar existing approach for Active XML representation of business artifacts. 1

The concept of flipped learning has received significant attention in recent years. In a flipped learning methodology, students view instructional videos and complete related assignments before class, so that face-to-face time with the instructor can be spent applying the knowledge and skills they were introduced to in the pre-class assignments. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of a flipped learning method for teaching information literacy (IL) skills to undergraduate students compared to a traditional teaching method where the majority of face-to-face time is spent instructing. To evaluate this, a mixed methods research design was used, where results from qualitative interviews helped explain findings from test data, assignment completion data, and major paper rubric data. The IL tests resulted in a small but insignificant test score improvement for flipped participants. Interviewed flipped participants reported mainly positive feelings toward flipped learning, whereas all flipped ESL interviewees related strong positive feedback towards flipped learning. / Graduate / 0515 / 0727 / 0710 / rmccue@uvic.ca