The retail payment market can be seen as a high velocity market, where the rate of change is high. The future for the retail payment market is uncertain to a large extent. A relatively new phenomenon is the entrance of third party payment providers (hereafter; TPP) who are utilizing the incumbent banks account infrastructure in order access information or initiate payments. A legislation named PSD2 will increase the TPP’s possibilities to utilize the bank’s infrastructure. This makes it possible for TPP to offer new innovative solutions to the end customer. The incumbent actors on the retail payment market have not been successful in regards to innovation, which have given fintech companies room to grow, both in size and numbers. However, the incumbent actors do still possess a strong position, but are frequently challenged by new startups who also want to initiate payments. Historically, the entrance barrier to the retail payment market have been high and the incumbent actors have had an oligopoly position. It has resulted in a lack of competition and a low innovation rate. However, this is starting to change because of new initiatives from EU, where the aim is to increase competition and facilitate a well- functioning retail payment market. Therefore, the increased competition from fintech startups is a relatively new phenomenon and most actors in the retail payment market think it is a beneficial evolution, except few representatives from the incumbent players who are worried that their existing competitive advantages will be outdated. This study provides a picture of how the retail payment market can develop in the future. By determining the most critical trends, it becomes clear what is driving the retail payment market and how the dynamic between actors is changing. In order to get the necessary insights to fulfil the purpose, 18 interviews have been conducted with different stakeholders to the retail payment market. The variation of perspectives of the interviewees give this study a depth that in the end enhance the validity of the result. It is hard to predict the future in a market characterized by high velocity, hence, it is important to understand what trends have the strongest influence on the market. By analysing the interviews, six trends were identified as having a huge impact on the payment market. 1. Merchants are pushing EU to regulate to their favour 2. Access to the information created when conducting payments 3. Incumbent banks have a hard time adopting to new changes 4. New technical solutions enable more actors to create payment solutions with global coverage 5. Actors without payment as core business enter the market 6. New regulations, such as PSD2, aims to increase competition on the retail payment market. Two of these six trends have been identified to be particularly uncertain and having a huge impact on the development of the retail payment market. Furthermore, these two trends are characterised by a dichotomy and the development of them will influence the market in four distinctively different ways. The first dichotomy is whether it becomes easy to be compliant with new legislations, or not. The study shows that if it becomes a heavy burden being compliant with PSD2 and using the technical standard for XS2A, the market will be characterized by economies of scale. If it on the other hand becomes is easy being compliant with PSD2 and initiate payments through XS2A, the overhead costs will decrease and the benefits of scale shrink. The second dichotomy, is whether actors without payment as core business will enter the market, or not. If payments can be seamlessly integrated in other applications, for instance a shopping experience, it is likely that payments will be initiated by actors who does not have payment initiations as core business. However, if it becomes hard to initiate payments on the banks account infrastructure, the attractiveness of having payments as a value adding service fades.

Optimized peripheral tremor suppression could address many limitations of surgical or medicinal treatments of Essential Tremor, however it is not well understood how the tremorogenic activity is distributed among the muscles of the upper limb, and therefore how to optimize such suppression. We recorded electromyographic (EMG) activity in the 15 major superficial muscles from the shoulder to the wrist while subjects performed postural and kinetic tasks similar to activities of daily living. We calculated the power spectral density and computed the total power in the tremor band (4"12 Hz) for each muscle, from which we determined the distribution of tremorogenic activity among the 15 muscles for various conditions. Differences in distribution between conditions were quantified as Pearson correlation coefficients. All 15 muscles exhibited some tremorogenic activity. The anterior deltoid exhibited by far the most power, the wrist extensors had more power than other distal muscles, and the triceps longus showed the least power. Distributions among muscles was highly consistent across repetitions (r = 0.91 ± 0.07) and somewhat stereotyped across subjects (r = 0.58 ± 0.31). Differences in task (postural vs. kinetic), limb configuration, and subject characteristics (sex; tremor severity, onset, and duration) had little effect on distribution (r =0.84). Interestingly, the distribution of tremorogenic activity was highly correlated (r = 0.94 ± 0.08) with the distribution of voluntary activity (power between 0.5 and 4 Hz). In particular, muscles opposing gravity had the highest amount of tremorogenic activity. This may explain in part why the distribution of tremorogenic activity was stereotyped across subjects.

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A new N-dimensional digital modulation technique is proposed as a bandwidth efficient method for the transmission of digital data. The technique uses an antipodal scheme in which parallel binary data signs baseband orthogonal waveforms derived from Hermite polynomials. Orthogonality guarantees recoverability of the data from N simultaneously transmitted Hermite waveforms. The signed Hermite waveform is transmitted over a radio link using either amplitude or frequency modulation. The bandwidth efficiency of the amplitude Hermite method is found to be as good as filtered BPSK in practice, while the bit error rates for both modulations are identical. Hermite Keying (HK), the FM modulation version of the N-dimensional Hermite transmission, outperforms constant envelope FSK in terms of spectrum efficiency. With a simple FM detector, the bit error rate of HK is as good as that of non-coherent FSK. In a frequency selective fading channel, the simulation results suggest that specific data bits of HK are relatively secure from errors, which is beneficial in some applications. Symbol synchronization is critical to the system. An optimal synchronization method for the N-dimensional antipodal scheme in additive white Gaussian noise channel is derived. Simulation results confirm that the synchronizer can operate successfully at E/No of 3 dB. / Ph. D.

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Abstract: The thesis work is part of a project that aims to develop a reliable CFD model to investigate the fluid-dynamics of a fluidized bubbling bed during gasification of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from sorted municipal solid waste (MSW). Gasification is a thermochemical process that converts carbon-containing materials into syngas. In this specific context scaling up is challenging because it implies dealing with a complex chemistry combined to heat and mass transfer phenomena in a multi-phase fluid environment. CFD modeling could represent a potential tool to predict the impact of the reactor configuration and operating conditions on gas yield, composition and potential contaminants. Validation of CFD simulations for such systems has been so far possible using different sophisticated experimental tools, allowing to link the model with experimental data. However, such high tech equipment may not always be available, especially at industrial scale. Hence, this work focuses on investigating the accuracy and numerical sensitivity of two different CFD models employed in the characterization of dense solid-particle flows in bubbling fluidized beds. The key parameter adopted to describe and quantify the dynamic behavior of this multiphase system is the power spectral density (PSD) distribution of pressure fluctuations. This PSD function was used to assess the accuracy of CFD models using one set of operating condition. The same type of analysis, extended to a wider range of operating conditions, may lead to a robust validation of the numerical models presented in this work. In spite of his measurement simplicity, pressure drop data present a strong connection with the bed fluid-dynamics and its interpretation could help to improve the fluidized bed technologies very fast, pushing CFD models closer to applications. / Résumé : Le but de ce projet est de développer un modèle CFD fiable pour étudier la dynamique des fluides d'un lit fluidisé en régime bullant pendant la gazéification de combustibles solides de récupération (CSR) triés à partir de déchets solides municipaux (DSM). La gazéification est un processus thermochimique qui convertit les matériaux contenant du carbone en gaz de synthèse. La mise à l'échelle est difficile dans ce cas car elle implique une chimie complexe combinée aux phénomènes de transfert de chaleur et de masse dans un environnement fluide multiphasique. La modélisation CFD représente un outil potentiel pour prédire l'impact de la configuration du réacteur et des conditions de fonctionnement sur le rendement, la composition et les contaminants potentiels du gaz. La validation des simulations CFD pour de tels systèmes a été jusqu'à présent possible grâce à l’utilisation de différents outils expérimentaux sophistiqués, permettant de lier le modèle aux données expérimentales. Toutefois, un tel équipement de pointe n’est pas toujours disponible, en particulier à l'échelle industrielle. Par conséquent, ce travail se concentre sur l'étude de la précision et de la sensibilité numérique de deux modèles CFD différents, utilisés dans la caractérisation des flux de particules solides denses dans les lits fluidisés bouillonnants. Le paramètre clé adopté pour décrire et quantifier le comportement dynamique de ce système multiphase est la distribution de la densité spectrale de puissance (DSP) des fluctuations de pression. La fonction DSP a été utilisée pour évaluer la précision des modèles CFD en utilisant un ensemble de conditions de fonctionnement. Le même type d'analyse, étendu à une plus large gamme de conditions de fonctionnement, peut conduire à une validation robuste des modèles numériques présentés dans ce travail. En dépit de sa simplicité de mesure, les données de chute de pression présentent une importante corrélation avec les lits fluidisés, de plus, leur interprétation pourrait aider à améliorer ces technologies très rapidement, poussant les modèles CFD plus près des applications.

This master thesis deals with classification of sleep stages on the base of polysomnographic signals. On several signals was performed analysis and feature extraxtion in time domain and in frequency domain as well. For feature extraxtion was used EEG, EOG and EMG signals. For classification was selected classification models K-NN, SVM and artifical neural network. Accuracy of classifation is different depending on used method and spleep stages split. The best results achieved classification among stages Wake, REM, and N3, with neural network usage. In this case the succes was 93,1 %.

The thesis write about the linear discrete time incremental estimators. These are used for the choice of the best control system in systems with variable structure and further for direct control with status controller. There is an application of this on physical plane. In this paper PID variation controllers are discussed and optimized using Nelder-Mead Simplex Method. Feedback control with optimal PID is compared with control using linear discrete incremental estimators and status regulator.

This presenting master’s thesis deals with a problem of digitaly controled room temperature using the software PLC. The result of this work was creating of an algorithm to control temperature on the requested leve ofl setpoint, minimizing operating costs of the building. The PLC softwares from different manufacturers were analyzed and compared with conventional PLC. The testing facility was disigned and used to control the temperature in the room and data visualization. Room temperature was regulated by PS controller or two point regulator.