Starch in paper coatings is known to increase the risk of print mottle in lithographic offset printing. The objective of this study was to increase the understanding of this behaviour. Four phenomena that could lead to print mottle, where the presence of starch might be important, have been identified: uneven binder migration, uneven coating mass distribution, uneven deformation during calendering and differential shrinkage. The latter three were investigated in this project. Starch-containing coating colours often have high water retention. A relationship between the water retention of the coating colours and the distribution of coating thickness was found in a pilot trial. A theory is proposed, where the surface profile of the base paper beneath the blade, that governs the coat weight distribution in blade coating, is affected by moisture from the dewatering coating colours and the compressive force exerted by the blade. Drying strategies were studied to see whether they would induce porosity variations in the coating layers. There is a strong connection between the rate of evaporation and the shrinkage of the coating layer, but no porosity variations due to the choice of drying strategy were found. Shrinkage is governed by the capillary forces. At the same capillary pressure, the coating shrinks more for some binder systems, which is suggested to be due to a weaker chemical interaction between the binder and the pigment. Oxidized starch/latex coatings, stained with a fluorescent marker, had a greater standard deviation in fluorescence intensity than CMC/latex coatings caused by a difference in either porosity or latex distribution. It was shown that calendering introduces porosity variations into the coating layer that are larger for starch-containing coatings. The drying strategies appeared to have a significant effect on these porosity variations and they correlated positively with print mottle in some cases and in another case negatively. In the case of the negatively correlated, the mottle was probably caused by variations in surface porosity existing prior to the calendering.

First part of this thesis presents the design, validation, and implementation of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmitter and receiver on a Cyclone II FPGA chip using DSP builder and Quartus II high level design tools. The resources in terms of logical elements (LE) including combinational functions and logic registers allocated by the model have been investigated and addressed. The result shows that implementing the basic OFDM transceiver allocates about 14% (equivalent to 6% at transmitter and 8% at receiver) of the available LE resources on an Altera Cyclone II EP2C35F672C6 FPGA chip, largely taken up by the FFT, IFFT and soft decision encoder. Secondly, a new wavelet-based OFDM system based on FDPP-DA based channel estimation is proposed as a reliable ECG Patient Monitoring System, a Personal Wireless telemedicine application. The system performance for different wavelet mothers has been investigated. The effects of AWGN and multipath Rayleigh fading channels have also been studied in the analysis. The performances of FDPP-DA and HDPP-DA-based channel estimations are compared based on both DFT-based OFDM and wavelet-based OFDM systems. The system model was studied using MATLAB software in which the average BER was addressed for randomized data. The main error differences that reflect the quality of the received ECG signals between the reconstructed and original ECG signals are established. Finally a DA-based architecture for 1-D iDWT/DWT based on an OFDM model is implemented for an ECG-PMS wireless telemedicine application. In the portable wireless body transmitter unit at the patient site, a fully Serial-DA-based scheme for iDWT is realized to support higher hardware utilization and lower power consumption; whereas a fully Parallel-DA-based scheme for DWT is applied at the base unit of the hospital site to support a higher throughput. It should be noted that the behavioural level of HDL models of the proposed system was developed and implemented to confirm its correctness in simulation. Then, after the simulation process the design models were synthesised and implemented for the target FPGA to confirm their validation.

Le but de cette étude est de trouver un matériau catalytique pour la réduction catalytique sélective des NOx par les hydrocarbures (HC-SCR) dans l’échappement Diesel par une approche haut débit (HTE : high throughput experiments). Ce matériau doit être actif à basse température et stable hydrothermiquement à hautes températures. Une bibliothèque de 150 catalyseurs a été synthétisée. Les catalyseurs sont constituées d’Ag, Au, Cu supportés sur Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, CeO2 qui peuvent être dopés (Ga, Mo…). Ceux-ci sont testés en parallèle dans un dispositif constitué de 16 réacteurs (SWITCH-16) au cours réaction à température programmée (TPR) avec un flux modèle (100ppm NO / 350ppm C3H6 / 15% O2 /11% H2O). Le meilleur catalyseur 5%Ag/1%P/Al2O3, testé plus avant, montre une température de light-off de 50°C en dessous de celle d’un catalyseur commercial de référence et celui-ci est stable après un vieillissement de 16h à 750°C en présence d’eau. Ce catalyseur est ensuite enduit par voie sol-gel sur un monolithe (1*2 pouces et 300 cpsi) et testé sur un mini-pilote. Les tendances obtenues en réacteur à lit fixe montés en parallèle sont confirmées sur mini-pilote. En parallèle une approche microcinétique expérimentale des étapes élémentaires de surface impliquées dans la HC-SCR du NO sur un catalyseur Ag/Al2O3 a été utilisée pour déterminer les étapes élémentaires contrôlant la conversion du NO en prenant en compte l’adsorption compétitive entre NO et CO présent dans le gaz d’échappement Diesel. Nous avons identifié l’élimination des espèces Oads adsorbées sur des sites Ag° comme étape limitante pour la production de N2 et suggéré une nouvelle orientation possible pour l’étude HTE. / The aim of this study was to discover a catalytic material for NOx reduction by HC-SCR in Diesel exhaust which is active at the lowest temperatures and hydro thermally stable at high temperatures by using High Throughtput experiments (HTE). A library of 150 catalysts was synthesized. Catalysts are supported Ag, Au, Cu on Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, CeO2 and further doped with different dopants (Ga, Mo, …). They were tested in a 16-parallel reactor (SWITCH-16) using a Temperature Program Reaction (TPR) protocol with a model feed (100ppm NO / 350ppm C3H6 / 15% O2 /11% H2O). The best catalyst formulation 5%Ag/1%P/Al2O3, which was further improved, exhibits a light off temperature of 50°C lower than a reference commercial catalyst and is stable after ageing at 750°C in presence of water for 16 hrs. For pilot testing, the best catalyst was deposited by sol-gel method on a 1x2 inch monolith (300 cpsi). We showed the consistency of catalytic results obtained in the parallel fixed beds match with monolith bench testing. In parallel a experimental microkinetic approach of surface elementary steps involved in the HC-SCR of NO on Ag/Al2O3 catalyst has been performed to reveal the elementary steps controlling the conversion of the NO reactant taking into account the competitive chemisorption between NO and CO that is present in an exhaust gas. We identified the elimination of Oads species adsorbed on Ag° sites as the limiting step for the N2 production and suggested a new orientation of a HTE study.

Este trabalho fundamentou-se na concepção, desenvolvimento tecnológico, ampliação de escala e avaliação do comportamento de sistema combinado anaeróbio-aeróbio de leito fixo e fluxo ascendente, com recirculação da fase líquida, para tratamento de esgoto sanitário. O reator, em escala piloto, foi construído em formato cilíndrico e confeccionado em fibra de vidro com volume total de aproximadamente 2,5 \'M POT.3\', com intuito de desenvolver um sistema capaz de operar como única unidade de tratamento para remoção de matéria orgânica e nitrogênio, reduzindo a geração de lodo e o consumo de energia pela combinação dos processos anaeróbio e aeróbio, possibilitando o aproveitamento das vantagens de cada um e minimizando seus aspectos negativos. Os melhores resultados operacionais foram encontrados para a etapa com tempo de detenção hidráulica total (TDH) de 12 horas e razão de recirculação (r) igual a 3,0, apresentando eficiências médias de remoção de DQO, \'N\'-NTK e SST de 92 ± 3%; 68 ± 11% e 75 ± 7%, respectivamente, com valores médios efluentes de 54 ± 22 mgDQO/L, 14 ± 10 mg \'N\'-NTK/L e 70 ± 42 mgSST/L. Os valores médios de carga orgânica volumétrica (COV) e carga volumétrica de nitrogênio (CVN) removidas foram de 1,08 ± 0,04 kgDQO/\'M POT.3\'.dia e 0,06 ± 0,02 kgNTK/\'M POT.3\'.dia para esta etapa. A estabilidade operacional durante a etapa com TDH de 12 h, a alta remoção de matéria orgânica e nitrogênio, sem a necessidade de adição de fonte exógena de carbono, para promover o processo de desnitrificação, e de suplementação de alcalinidade consumida durante a nitrificação, e a reduzida necessidade de manutenção devido à tecnologia de fabricação adotada, comprovam a viabilidade técnica de utilização do reator combinado de leito fixo como unidade compacta para pequenas comunidades ou vazões afluentes, para tratamento de esgoto sanitário. / This work was based on design, technology development, scale up and performance evaluation of an up-flow combined anaerobic-aerobic fixed bed system, with recycle of the liquid phase, for treatment of domestic sewage. The pilot scale reactor was built in a fiberglass cylindrical shape with a total volume of approximately 2.5 \'M POT.3\', aiming at the development of a system capable of operate as a single treatment unit for organic matter and nitrogen removal, with low sludge production and energy consumption by the advantages of combination of anaerobic and aerobic processes. The improved operating results were found for the condition with overall hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12 hours and recycle ratio (r) equal to 3.0, with average removal efficiencies of COD, TKN and TSS of 92 ± 3%, 68 ± 11% and 75 ± 7%, respectively, with average effluent values of 54 ± 22 mgCOD/L, 14 ± 10 mgTKN/L and 70 ± 42 mgTSS/L. The average values of removed organic loading rate (OLR) and nitrogen volumetric loading (NVL) reached 1.06 ± 0.04 kgCOD/\'M POT.3.d and 0.06 ± 0.02 kgTKN/\'\'M POT.3\'.d for this phase. The operational stability during the stage with HRT of 12 h, the high organic matter and nitrogen removal, without addition of exogenous carbon source (electron donor) to promote the denitrification process, with no supplementation of alkalinity consumed during nitrification, and the reduced maintenance due to manufacturing technology adopted, proved the technical feasibility of the combined fixed-bed reactor as a compact unit for small communities or low inflow rates, for treatment of domestic sewage.

La fatigue est l’un des symptômes les plus fréquents et persistants chez les victimes de commotion cérébrale. Au cours des dernières années, des signes d’altérations cognitives post-commotionnelles à la suite d’un effort aérobie, soit une forme de fatigue dont la cause est physique plus que cognitive, ont été trouvés à court et à long terme chez des athlètes étudiants. Or, puisque ces athlètes évoluent dans un contexte où ils doivent non seulement performer dans leur discipline sportive, mais aussi à l’école ou au travail, il convient de se demander si un effort mental soutenu n’aurait pas le même effet chez cette population. L’objectif de cette étude était donc de déterminer si des athlètes étudiants ayant subi une commotion cérébrale (groupe HC) se sentent plus fatigués ou ont davantage tendance à se fatiguer mentalement que ceux n’ayant jamais subi de commotion cérébrale (groupe ST). Les sujets devaient répondre à une série de questionnaires auto-rapportés. Ils devaient aussi compléter une tâche informatisée recrutant les fonctions exécutives avant et après avoir répondu à une épreuve de raisonnement, d’une durée d’une heure, visant à simuler un examen scolaire. Leur réaction physiologique à la tâche était mesurée via un appareil d’électroencéphalographie et un cardiofréquencemètre. Si dans l’ensemble les résultats n’appuient pas l’hypothèse initiale, les deux groupes ont montré des différences notables dans leur façon de répondre à la tâche. Nous avons notamment constaté l’absence d’un effet de pratique à la condition la plus facile ainsi qu’une variabilité de la performance généralement plus élevée chez les sujets avec un historique de commotion cérébrale. De plus, contrairement au groupe témoin, ceux qui rapportaient des symptômes plus importants de fatigue cognitive quotidienne, de somnolence et de dépression montraient également une moins bonne précision à la tâche après un effort cognitif soutenu. Ces résultats suggèrent que les commotions cérébrales pourraient avoir pour effet d’accroître la sensibilité de certains individus à l’effort cognitif. De futures études devraient se pencher sur cette relation afin de la confirmer et d’en comprendre les causes. / Fatigue is one of the most common and persistent symptoms in concussion victims. In recent years, signs of post-concussive cognitive impairment following aerobic exertion, a form of fatigue whose cause is more physical than cognitive, have been found in both shortand long-term in student athletes. However, since these athletes evolve in a context where they must not only perform in their sport, but also at school or at work, it is worth asking whether sustained mental effort would have the same effect in this population. The objective of this study was therefore to determine whether student athletes who have suffered a concussion (HC group) feel more tired or are more likely to become mentally fatigued than those who have never suffered a concussion (ST group). Subjects were asked to complete a series of self-report questionnaires. They were also required to complete a computerized task recruiting executive functions before and after completing a one-hour reasoning test meant to simulate a school examination. Their physiological response to the task was measured using electroencephalography and a heart rate monitor. While the results do not support the original hypothesis, the groups showed significant differences in the way they responded to the task. Particularly, we found the absence of a practice effect at the easiest condition as well as a generally higher performance variability in subjects with a history of concussion. In addition, unlike the control group, those who reported greater symptoms of daily cognitive fatigue, drowsiness and depression also showed poorer task accuracy after sustained cognitive effort. These results suggest that concussions may have the effect of increasing the sensitivity of some individuals to cognitive effort. Future studies should investigate this relationship in order to confirm it and understand its causes.

Objective Although avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) has been included as a new diagnostic entity of childhood feeding and eating disorders, there is a lack of measures to reliably and validly assess ARFID. In addition, virtually nothing is known about clinical characteristics of ARFID in nonclinical samples. Method The present study presents the development and validation of an ARFID module for the child and parent version of the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) in a nonclinical sample of N = 39 children between 8 and 13 years with underweight and/or restrictive eating behaviors. For evaluating the ARFID module's reliability, the convergence of diagnoses between two independent raters and between the child and parent module was determined. The module's validity was evaluated based on the full-length child version of the EDE, a 24 h food record, parent-reported psychosocial functioning and self-reported quality of life, and objective anthropometric measures. Results In total, n = 7 children received an ARFID diagnosis. The ARFID module showed high interrater reliability, especially for the parent version, and high convergence between child and parent report. Evidence for the module's convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity was provided. Specifically, children with versus without ARFID reported significantly less macro- and micronutrient intake and were more likely to be underweight. Discussion This pilot study indicates the child and parent version of the EDE ARFID module to be promising for diagnosing ARFID in a structured way but still necessitates a validation in a larger clinical and community-based sample.

The diploma thesis describes the actual situation of smart water metering, an overview of water meters suitable for remote data reading and individual components for application of remote data transmission including transmission itself. The thesis also contains the characteristics of available wireless data communication technologies and detailed solutions according to two companies specializing in remote transmission of water meter data. Subsequently, the pilot projects of large water company are presented, including practical findings. The practical part deals with the implementation of smart water metering in three specific municipalities, including a description of the area of interest, water supply system specification and possible limitations, the recommended technology, the requirements for putting in into operation and the pricing of technology and services according to two specialized companies. Finally, the possibilities of other using of smart water meter technology are discussed.

This master thesis deals with the issue of pilot inattention and proposes a design of a system for detecting inattention of general aviation pilots. Inattention belongs to one of the human-caused errors that currently contribute to the most common causes of aviation accidents. The theoretical part deals with the definition of inattention, compares different aviation categories based on flight rules, and contains a search of detection methods. The practical part of the work deals with the selection of suitable sensors, data collection, and implementation of detection algorithms. In this thesis, two different approaches were chosen. The first implementing machine learning using the RUSBoost classifier, which detects states of attention and distraction. The second approach represents the design of a system for detecting pilot inattention based on a set of rules specified in the CLIPS expert system.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to summarize legislation dealing with UAVs and to create structure of trainings for UAV pilots. First part of this thesis is generally about UAVs, next one deals with UAV pilot training and the last part deals with future development of different areas in unmanned aircraft industry.

The main topic of this thesis is a catalytic oxidation which belongs to a group of modern technologies for removing emission of CO and VOC from waste air. In the introduction of this thesis, the basic concepts are defined. Further the legislative requirements associated with VOC emissions, emission limits and conditions are summarized. Described destructive and non-destructive methods for removing VOCs from waste gases are also briefly described. Increased attention is paid to the catalytic oxidation as the main theme of the thesis. It was searched for industrial applications where the catalytic oxidation is used. Another chapter is devoted to the theoretical analysis of kinetics of catalytic oxidation reactions. Firstly, the basic types of reactors are described and also material balance and reaction rate for the isothermal and adiabatic reactor. In the experimental part results of performed kinetic measurements on a pilot unit for catalytic commonly used organic solvents (VOCs) using commercially available catalysts were summarized. Pre-exponential factors and activation energies for sprinkling catalysts EnviCat VOC-5565 and EnviCat 55068 for substances ethanol, toluene and acetone were determined. "Light-off" curves for these substances and methane were measured and on sprinkled catalyst EnviCat 55068 and on monolithic catalyst Purelyst PH-304.